The Ashy Merman
by fairyMei33
Summary: Title a take off of 'The Misty Mermaid'. Ash has a secret that's about to change his world.
1. The Ashy Merman

Disclaimer: I do not own any character in this fic. They belong to someone in China or Japan. This fic was inspired by a similar fiction called "Hidden Secrets" by Tinanit Enozym

The Ashy Merman

The sunlight beat down harshly on the trio as they trudged through the Merilblue Forrest and each were dealing with it in their own way.

Brock had taken his shirt off and was using it as a wipe rag to clear his face of sweat. This was working rather poorly as he just kept sweating and his shirt was now sopping wet, causing him to actually be putting wetness onto himself instead of taking it off.

Misty had insisted a stop in the bushes and had changed into her bikini top and an amazingly short skirt that really accented how long her legs really were.

Ash seemed to be dealing the worst with the unexpected heat. Oddly enough, he wasn't sweating at all, but he was turning redder as every hour passed. He had taken off his jacket, gloves, and hat, but that had only helped for a few hours. He had long finished his own water and was now finishing off Brocks'.

"Are we almost to the river yet?" he asked, gulping down the last swallow of water in the canister.

"Another half a mile," Brock replied with a bored tone. He'd been counting down the half miles for three miles now.

Ash sped up his walking pace, making the other two jog to keep up.

"You're just gonna wear yourself down Ash," Misty called to him.

"The sooner we get there the sooner we can go swimming in the river," Ash responded. Somehow the way he said river brought to mind cooling waters and crystalline streams.

Misty had to concede that point but she still managed to grumble the entire remaining half mile.

Brock wisely made no comment on either side.

When they rounded the last bend in the path and saw the river, it was almost a godsend. (Both from the heat and from the bickering.)

While Misty went into the bushes to change her skirt and panties into the bottom half of her bikini, and while Brock was leaning down and refilling his canteen to have a big gulp of the refreshing liquid, Ash took the easy way out; stripping off his shoes, socks, pokeball belt, and shirt, he dove headfirst into the river in a matter of seconds.

He was submerged long enough for his two companions to actually begin to become afraid when he surfaced with a mighty sigh of pleasure.

Misty, annoyed that he had actually made her worry about him, threw a rock that bounced off the top of Ash's head.

"Oooww! What was that for!" he exclaimed, rubbing the abused spot with his hand.

"_That _was for making us worry you big oaf! We thought you drowned!" Misty hollered back as she stepped out from the bushes and made her way into the water.

It was warmer than it normally would be this time of year because of the heat wave that had settled over Johto. While the water would have normally held a cold chill, it was instead almost perfect. Warm enough to swim in for extended periods of time, yet cold enough to cool you down without giving you chills.

Brock even joined them for a swim before he decided to cook dinner for the group. He switched between the two while the three were in the river as both Misty and Ash didn't do anything in the water together. Brock sniggered quietly when neither of them noticed him. They were so in love with each other, it was comical how they acted.

Brock exited the water first as he did have dinner to make, although he was able to extend his time in the water by fishing for dinner rather than preparing canned goods for the meal. He made sure to only catch non-pokemon fish, like salmon and trout.

The next to leave was Misty. While the water was nearly perfect, it was still victim to the temperature changes of the day. As the sun slid lower in the sky, the water became cooler until it was uncomfortable to be in.

The two kept each other company while the fish were cooking over the fire on a spit Brock had made himself.

Ash came trudging up to their camp still soaking, but wearing his shirt and gloves and carrying his shoes and socks.

"Took you long enough," Misty called to him as he walked up to the fire. While her words were slightly scolding, she was still smiling as she handed him a cooked fish with a stick stuck through it.

Ash took it from her with a quick 'thank you' as he plopped himself down beside her, taking a big bite of food.

Misty rolled her eyes, but said nothing on his table manners because she knew he would just respond that they weren't at a table.

The meal went as countless had before: the group reminiscing on past adventures, particularly about their Team Rocket's antics. Over the years, Jessie, James, and Meowth had become commonly referred to as _their_ Team Rocket as they had so many run-ins with them, sometimes on a daily basis. Still, while their Team Rocket professed to be bad, they had a definite kindness to them, which sometimes lead Ash to wonder how many capers he had foiled because of his own skill, or because deep down, their Team Rocket weren't really bad people and didn't want to do bad things.

This meal routine was an old, well established one that had developed over years of meals shared over an open fire in the wilderness. It was comfortable, from the compliments paid to Brock over the deliciousness of the food, to the now near scripted fights Ash and Misty had over the leftovers.

So it was really no big change when they set up camp for the night, forgoing the tents for sleeping bags and putting out the fire before curling up to sleep.

It was the dead of night when Misty woke suddenly from her dreams, not quite sure what had woken her so abruptly from her sleep. Her hair was plastered onto her forehead as she swiped at her eyes to wipe the last traces of sleep away.

Brock lay dead to the world, his sleeping bag thrown halfway off from his chest, snoring loud enough to wake a snorlax.

Ash's sleeping bag was next to her own, but it was empty. Only Pikachu was laying on it, it's own snores mixing with the louder Brocks'.

Figuring Ash had only gone to use the little boy's bush, she roused herself for a midnight swim to cool herself from the sudden increase in temperature.

Still wearing her bikini, Misty silently snuck away from camp and toward the cul-de-sac of the river that formed a little lake not far away from their camp. Brock had mentioned it at dinner.

Misty located it without much trouble, slipping into the still warm water she pondered at the heat it still held. Swimming toward the warmth, she located a little jet stream underwater that poured forth heated water and in turn warmed the little lake.

A natural hot spring.

She found a rock near enough the vent to be in the warmed water and far enough away for the water to be cooling. She relaxed against the rock and luxuriated in the warm water that the vent provided.

It wasn't long though until it became too warm for her, so she went swimming deeper into the lake where the water wasn't as warm, but was still far from being too cool to swim in.

The cloudless night lit up the water of the lake so brightly that it almost looked like the water itself was glowing slightly.

Misty let herself float on her back in the water, just looking at the stars and the moon. It was so relaxing, but she still felt so awake. She had to tire herself so she could get herself back to sleep. So, she resorted to an old game she used to play with her sisters: Lake Bottom Exploration.

It had been years since she had last done it, with all the traveling, she didn't have a lot of time for recreation. On days like today, she didn't do it because Brock was a really terrible swimmer, and she never did a lot with Ash in the water, which was a pity because he was a really very good swimmer.

Turning her mind away from thoughts of Ash, she took a deep breath and dove under the pleasantly warm water. Kicking her feet vigorously, she swum all the way to the bottom of the lake.

It didn't have much in the way of seaweed, which was good because that stuff was easy to get tangled in. Instead there were various other water plants that waved gently in the flow of the water.

This was the reason she loved water pokemon, why she loved water, down here, away from all the noisy gadgets of mankind, it was like a whole other world. Completely separate from the world of man, still pristine and shining.

Kicking off from the bottom of the lake, she shot up to the surface to take a giant breathe of much needed oxygen. Quickly taking a second breath, she dove back under the water, back down to the bottom.

There were lots of flowering plants on the bottom of the lake, each swaying gently like lilies in the wind.

A few magicarp blinked stupidly at her. Misty waggled her fingers at them, startling them suddenly. They sped quickly away from her toward a patch of green plants, darting abruptly behind a figure that blended into the landscape so thoroughly, Misty would never have seen it had the Magicarp not dodged behind it. It looked frighteningly human shaped.

Misty blinked under the water, focusing her eyes on the figure.

Head, shoulders, arms…. Yes it was definitely a human!

She shot up to the lake surface, pausing only briefly to regather oxygen before diving back under and swimming determidly to the unmoving human shaped figure that lay on the bottom of the lake.

Reaching the bottom, she reoriented herself, saw the figure and swam towards it.

God, what could have happened? Maybe there was an accident. Or maybe it was an old mannequin that had been thrown away. Maybe it was just some old junk that happened to have settled in the semblance of a human form.

Nothing prepared her for what she saw.

The figure was alive. And green.

The skin was the palest shade of green she had ever seen, a whitish pastel green that blended almost perfectly with the light filtering through the greenish water. The hair floating around the figure's head was the same ghostly whitish-green, only half a shade darker. The ears were pointed at the ends and had little ridges running down the back of them, like they were little fins. The legs…

There were no legs. Just a long extravagant fin that was the same color as the hair. It was wrapped under the figure which was why Misty hadn't seen it immediately. The arms were lying curled by its face and were folded across a chest that had no bust whatsoever, but was instead slim and smooth. The fingers were almost delicate looking, and between each digit were an equally delicate looking lace work of webbing that connected each finger to the ones beside it.

On its' back was what looked like a large fin, the nearly white spines looking like ebony, with the same webbing trailing from the top to each of the successively smaller spines that ranged down the entirety of the back.

Misty moved closer to see the figures face. The eyebrows were delicately arched over closed eyes and were the darkest green she had seen on this body. The lips also had the same green coloring that the rest of the body had, the shade somewhere between the color of the eyebrows and the color of its' hair and fins.

But the face… It was one Misty would have recognized even if she were blind. She was so surprised that she yelled the name of its' owner even though she was still at the bottom of a rather deep lake.

"Ash!" the name came out garbled and in bubbles. This lead to a different problem as she now had no air in her lungs and was currently in danger of drowning.

The figure, Ash, jolted awake at the yell of his name and stared incredulously at Misty, who was now holding her hand over her mouth to keep the last of her air in her lungs.

"Misty!" he stated in a voice that was not quite a yell, but rather close to it, having no problem at all speaking underwater since he was breathing the lakewater through a second pair of lungs that all merfolk had, which they called their waterlungs.

Seeing her distress in a moment, Ash pushed off the lakebed and grabbed one of her wrists in his hand. He spread his back fins and allowed them to extend to full length, nearly double how tall he was in total from tip to tip. Pushing away from the lake bottom, his powerful tail propelled him forward, Misty still in tow, as his back fins undulated in a manner not unlike a rayfish's, propelling them even faster to the surface of the lake.

They broke the surface in a matter of seconds, Misty coughing loudly to expel the small amount of water that had managed to find its way into her lungs.

Supporting her through her coughing fit, Ash retracted his back fins to lay flat against his spine in a little ridge. He expelled the residual water from his secondary lungs in a sigh that emptied his waterlungs to help him keep afloat more easily.

Patting her on the back to help the last bit of water out of her lungs, Ash could not help but wonder how she had found him, and what this would do to their relationship. He wasn't so dumb as to think he didn't like her. He really did but he didn't know how she felt, so he had never risked voicing his feelings for her. But what would she think of him now?

Years ago, when Misty had been pressured into the mermaid role of her sisters' underwater act at the Cerulean City Gym, he had known he was in love. Swimming grace and style were big points in mer-society courtship, and seeing her with a fin –even a fake fin- swimming so easily through the water, her false tail flicking back and forth as she danced in the water with her pokemon, Ash had known he was doomed. He was in love with a human.

While this did happen occasionally in mer-society, especially now that they had adapted to spend much of their lives on land with humans, it usually didn't work out because humans were fundamentally land creatures, and merpeople were water creatures that spent time on land. Inside each human, was the yearning for the earth, while inside each merperson was the yearning for the deep waters of the lakes and seas. This difference normally proved too large a barrier between the two races and so relationships broke down.

Closing his eyes in resignation, Ash waited for the common reaction of disgust that most merpeople received when they were discovered.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do buster!" Misty said between residual coughs, actually poking him in the chest in accusation. "Why didn't you tell me about this _little secret_ a few years ago?"

Considering the situation, Ash made a rather intelligent response to this inquiry. Blinking his eyes, staring in disbelief, he said, "Huh?"

Misty splashed him with water and laughed at his expression, then swam a slow circle around him, trailing her fingers down the ridges of his folded back fins. Ash couldn't help flicking his tail in delight at the pleasure that coursed through him from that action. Back fins were sensitive to the slightest pressure, her action was like itching a scratch that had been bothering him his entire life.

He looked her in the face and saw only his friend that he had traveled with for nearly four years. No disgust, no revulsion.

She was okay with it. With his differences from her, from humans. And somehow, Ash knew, his life had just gotten a little bit better.

A/N: I have a second chapter to this and I may even make a third, but it really depends on if I get any reviews. If I leave it as a one chapter, it stands alone fine. It really depends on the readers' opinions if I should leave it as is, or continue it.


	2. Merly Matters

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Pokemon. The storyline, however is mine.**

A/N: I'm continuing this because I got some reviews from people that liked this story.

Special thanks to Kazeto Tamashil for a _very nice and useful review. _I am, indeed, honored to know my fanfiction was the first AAML you put on your favorites. I had not even thought about providing a new Ash past, but now I think I'll do one. If you have any further comments or suggestions, I would be more than glad to receive them.

And so, Let the story CONTINUE!

Mer-ly Matters

It had been almost a year since that fateful night when Misty had discovered Ash's secret heritage. The revelation had only brought them closer as friends. Like co-conspirators in a mystery plot.

Many of Ash's little idiosyncrasies now made much more sense when knowing his mer-heritage.

While Ash could change freely from human to merman form, there were a few little things that remained to betray his true form. Almost all traces of his merman form faded into his human form, but there were always a little webbing between his fingers, it was almost unnoticeable unless you actually looked for it, but it was enough that Ash had begun the custom of wearing his gloves. Similarly, his ears retained a point at the edges, which was why he wore his hair long and always had a hat on his head. The last, while his back fins totally disappeared, there was a unique patterning on his skin that all merman had in human form. Thus the reason he wore a shirt and jacket.

Misty had learned a few additional facts from Ash about merpeople. The most important being that they needed to have lots of water while on land. They were, after all, sea creatures; if they dried out too severely, they could die. This was why he had been anxious about the water supply on that fateful day two years ago. It was strange to note that merpeople sweated very little, as their bodies conserved as much water as possible. Also, the back fins that were so impressive on Ash's merman form, were only on the males of his species. The webbing between his fingers was more flexible than Misty had thought webbing could be, allowing merpeople to pick up and grasp things as easily as any webless human.

Brock still had no idea.

It wasn't that Ash didn't want to tell him, but he had kept it secret from Brock so long that it was almost a game of how long he could keep Brock in the dark. There was no malicious intent to the game, Ash had even been dropping hints for over a year as to his true nature, it was just that Brock was so hard-headed that he never noticed something unless it hit him right in the face.

In fact, when they came to rivers and lakes, and when they were certain they were alone, Ash had taken to turning into his merman form and even talking to Brock, and Brock _still_ didn't notice.

Ash and Misty had just about died laughing from that.

During their journeys, Misty had encountered other merpeople as she now knew the signs to look for. She had learned that all merpeople were a different color, ranging in color as far as the color spectrum could go. No other merperson however, displayed the same beauty as Ash's merman form. They were all of darker, and duller, shades. It may have been her imagination, but they also seemed to treat Ash with a deference to him, like he was of a higher station than them. Misty had never really inquired into mer-society politics, so she just assumed it had something to do with that.

She had only seen a few females of the mer-species, but she had to admit there was a large difference between the genders.

The largest difference was the back fins on the males and that the females had a completely different tail and fin structure. While the males were beautiful, slim and streamlined with a large and broad fin at the end, the females had a tail fin that was voluminous, almost extravagant, starting a third to a forth from the end of the tail. There were also two little fin ridges, one on the underside about a foot into the tail, and one on the top, which started two thirds down the spine and went almost the entire way down to their main fin. All three fins waved and rippled in the waters they were in, making a rather dazzling display as they swam.

They were all so beautiful in the water, that Misty felt grungy in comparison to their sleek splendor. While on land, they may appear somewhat normal looking, but underwater, with their true colors showing, they were all gorgeous.

Especially Ash, all pale and shining, he always stood out from even the largest gathering of merpeople.

That was another thing. The first mer-gathering she had attended with Ash (while wearing a breathing mask) had severely startled the merpeople until Ash had stated she was with him. Everyone had settled down quickly and the subject was never brought up again; it didn't matter how many other gatherings she attended with Ash, they all treated her like they would treat each other.

Misty was sure however that they were whispering about her behind her back, but there didn't seem to be any cruelty to it, just gossip.

Mer-gatherings were never very large, maybe only a dozen at a time, and most of these were males. Apparently females were even more sensitive to temperature changes than the males, so they tended to do less traveling.

Ash had, however, been elusive when Misty had asked how the merpeople had adapted to come onto land. The most she'd gotten out of him was that it was similar to how pokemon could evolve and change shape.

Misty sometimes wondered if this would classify them _as_ pokemon, but never asked Ash if this were true. It seemed somehow rude.

She had however discovered that merpeople and humans could marry and have children. All the children would be merpeople though, as the genetics for that would never be dormant.

Misty asked Ash if it were possible to find out if any of her family were of the mer-society, but Ash had commented that if there were, it would be easily known to him. However, he would not elaborate on this statement.

While Ash could sometimes be stubborn about some details, the mer-society fascinated her.

Ash on the other hand, still had some reservations about revealing _everything_ to Misty. While she was his unofficial and unannounced girlfriend, there were a few things he was hesitant to tell her. Did it really matter where the merpeople came from? Did she really need a complete history of his race?

There was also a matter that troubled him, Misty hadn't shown romantic interest in him until after she found out his secret.

It was well known Misty was a near-fanatic about anything to do with water. Could she have become infatuated with him _because_ he was a merman, and not because of who he was?

That would also explain why she had become so enraptured by the fact of a race that was so attuned to the element she loved.

Ash was also troubled by a reaction of hers that raised warning bells in his head immediately.

The moment he had explained their transformation as being like pokemon evolution, he had seen the flash of thought in her eyes, that spark of question at the correlation with pokemon.

Was this an act to try to get a chance to capture a merperson to use like a pokemon?

It was a horrible thought, he knew, to suspect her of this. He loved her after all, and it hurt his heart to think she might be leading him on, especially after how long he had known her.

But he couldn't let personal feelings interfere with a very serious matter. This wasn't only about him, it was about his entire race. He might have been willing to risk himself, but he couldn't risk every other merperson of his world.

He had too much responsibility to risk his world on a fling with a girl who may not even care for him as he cared for her. There was too much at stake for him to make a mistake.

Especially now.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll try to update in a week or so. I'm still developing the storyline.


	3. Hiding A Royal Pain

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Pokemon.**

A/N: I've decided to take Kazeto Tamashil's suggestion and make a past story for Ash, but for now, I'm just continuing my plot line with Ash and Misty.

Hiding a Royal Pain

An epidemic had started. No one knew how, or why, and as far as the Council had discovered, it only was affecting merpeople.

The first symptom of the illness was an interruption with their transformation ability. They would automatically revert to their mer-forms and couldn't change any part of themselves to human form.

From there it was a downhill battle.

Their airlungs would stop functioning, forcing them to spend all their time underwater. Then their water abilities would shut down, leaving them defenseless.

As Misty had surmised, Merpeople were very like pokemon in a few respects. They could change forms like pokemon and they had abilities very similar to pokemon attacks. Everyone had slightly different powers, but the most powerful were from the Royal Family.

However, the Royal Family was currently in hiding.

The King had been killed by a mercenary group of humans. In order to protect the only child of the Family, and the last chance of lasting peace between humans and merfolk, the Prince had been taken by his mother and an adviser and had gone into hiding.

If the Prince was killed, all merpeople would lose their ability to change forms.

Merpeople were a magnificent race, but the Royal Family were the most exceptional of any race thus discovered.

They had developed over the centuries the ability to change shape, into humans. They had formed a unique link, never discovered in any other creature. The Royal Family linked their very essence to a crystal. This crystal was in turn connected to all other merpeople, extending the shape shifting ability to all of them.

The crystal was hidden. But if the Royal Family ever died out, the crystal would be worthless. All merpeople would lose their connection to the crystal, immediately losing their human forms.

This was why the illness was so confusing. How could a physical ailment be affecting their mystical connection with the crystal? It shouldn't be possible.

And yet it was happening.

There were also cases of merpeople disappearing.

Just vanishing without a trace.

The Council had grown concerned that merpeople had become a target and were being kidnapped.

This was another reason the prince was in hiding. They couldn't allow him to be captured.

Every two months there were small gatherings, which reported the prince to be in good condition, but becoming increasingly tired. Probably because of the ever rising demands on his crystal energy to support the growing number of afflicted in the mer-communtiy.

There were also reports on a human female being close to His Highness. Even attending the gatherings with him.

What was Prince Ash thinking?

Ash was sure he'd get an earful at the next Council Meeting. He grimaced even thinking about what they'd say.

Well, there really wasn't anything else he could do with Misty. She'd found out on her own, he was just trying to deal with the new situation as well as he could. Besides, bringing her with him to gatherings allowed him to get other merpeople's opinions on her. Getting outside opinions was crucial, as he was a little too close to the situation to see it properly. It also allowed him to observe her with other merpeople, giving him to chance to scrutinize her actions, and reactions, to other merpeople.

Of course, he'd been having a harder and harder time thinking straight. He was getting so tired, it was hard to keep up with the now too energetic Brock. He hadn't told Misty, so it was a little hard to defend himself when she scolded him for oversleeping in the mornings.

The only nights he had really good rests were at the Pokemon Centers.

Thank God for Nurse Joy's.

He doubted any humans drew the connection that they were all of the Healing Family branch of the Mersociety's Royal Family.

How they didn't suspect something fishy about hundreds of girls who look identical and have the same name was beyond him.

When his group stopped at Pokemon Centers, he was always ushered into a secret room that had a little pool for him to sleep in. Sleeping in water was always the most refreshing for merpeople, and with the draining effect of the Royal Crystal he needed all the rest he could get, which is where he was presently.

Of course, he could worry about everything tomorrow.

Ash settled comfortably into the little padding that was at the bottom of the pool, quickly falling asleep.

Somewhere in the darkness, an evil man smiled at the bound merpeople stored in separate water-filled glass containers.

He nodded to give permission to his scientists to begin examination on the first subject.

A/N: I bet you all knew the prince would be Ash. Sorry that this chapter was so short, it was just a plot establishing chapter. If this chapter seems a bit disconnected, then I apologize. I don't know how long I'm going to make this story. When I make stories too long I lose interest in them and stop writing them. I'm going to try to finish this story before I get bored with it.

P.S. The more reviews I get, the faster I'll write and update.


	4. The Coded Letter

**Disclaimer: I don't own any Pokemon characters.**

A/N: I hope you're all enjoying the story so far. I'm not used to writing this in depth with description, but I'm going to try to keep the writing style consistent.

12 Reviews! does a happy dance I've never gotten twelve before!

Here's a new chapter dedicated to all those who've given me reviews!

And remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I'll write and update!

The Coded Letter

Brock was completely bewildered as to why they had to go back to Ash's home. All he knew was that Mrs. Ketchum had sent a letter by Pidgey Post to Ash, which had been read immediately, then carefully reread as Ash turned an interesting shade of white that was almost tinted green, before being kicked in the shins by Misty.

It was then carefully placed in a side compartment of Ash's bag that Brock hadn't even noticed before.

Ash stood ramrod straight and looked at both he and Misty in the eyes before announcing that the trio had to return to Pallet town as quickly as possible. Ash had declined to share the contents of the letter to either of his companions.

Brock had gotten used to Ash doing weird things. Like getting up in the middle of the night and not returning until just before sunrise. Or like how he was always able to defy expectations during pokemon battles. But Ash had always –ALWAYS- explained his reasons when it involved their travels. That he was quite stubbornly refusing to answer their questions in relation to anything pertaining to the letter was confusing.

Of course, Ash had become a little more confusing in the last year.

He and Misty would disappear for hours every few months, then return and not tell him where they had been. In fact they ignored the fact that they'd ever left. Just returning and picking up where they had been like nothing had happened.

Other times, both of them would break out into near-hysterical giggles for no apparent reason. Normally this would happen when the three of them were swimming. It was very confusing.

Then there were the discussions they had that were so confusing. Talking about 'it' and 'them', but not really specifying any names about what they were discussing. It was like they were talking in code and using deliberate generalities so as to not let any information slip out to unauthorized people.

Maybe it was a game they were playing?

At least they were getting along better than they had been for the last several years.

Still, it troubled him for them to be behaving so unlike themselves. His curiosity was only heightened when Misty asked the only question that Ash did answer.

"Is it something about _that_?" she asked, glancing around quickly, her eyes resting briefly on a little stream they had just crossed over before glancing back at Ash.

"Yes," he replied, his voice like a turbulent sea storm raging against the rocks of the shore.

_What was going on?_

Misty had never seen Ash look so shaken from anything before. He had been so shocked that his skin had started to turn into his merman coloring. How far would he have changed if Misty hadn't drawn his attention by kicking him?

While they wouldn't mind Brock seeing Ash transform, they didn't know if it was secure here, if anyone else was around.

That Ash had almost transformed despite their lack of security was a big indication to his shock.

So she had asked the only question that made sense. It had to be something to do with his mer-heritage or something related.

"Is it something about _that_?" she asked, stressing the word 'that' and glancing at some water so Ash would know it meant about his secret.

His 'yes' had shocked her. She'd never heard so much repressed anger and fear in his voice before. It almost didn't sound like him at all, and brought to mind an incoming hurricane.

It left her with only one question in her mind.

_What had happened?_

Ash had opened the letter expecting a 'How-are-you-doing-we're-doing-fine' letter. He had never expected this.

_Dear Ash,_

_Some friends of ours have taken an unexpected trip. If you could come home to help take care of their pokemon it would be very nice and supportive._

_Professor Oak has also expressed an interest in talking to you about some Old Times, and how you're doing now._

_See you soon,_

_Mom_

It was short and coded. Any other person would only see a nice letter from a mother to her son, but it actually held certain key words they had decided on to be used for emergencies.

Their 'friends' meant some mer-people, an 'unexpected trip' meant they had gone missing suddenly, 'help take care of their pokemon' meant the pokemon had been there when their owners had been abducted, and 'Old Times' meant something to do with the Council. Even the 'see you soon' was code. It meant to get there as fast as possible.

So, while it read as an innocent message, it really meant this:

_Ash,_

_Some mer-people have gone missing. We need your help to calm down and talk to their pokemon. Professor Oak has a message from the Council that you need to see._

_Get here fast,_

_Mom_

What had happened?

A/N: Whet your appetite? The next chapter will be longer and will have more action in it.

I promise.

Don't hit me!

Brock finds out about Ash in the next chapter, however I can't figure out his reaction, so I'm leaving it to a vote!

1. He faints

2. He goes into shock for a few hours but is fine later

3. He's completely fine with it like Misty

4. Any other suggestion is welcome


	5. Flooding Waters and Spying Eyes

**Disclaimer: I don't own any Pokemon characters.**

A/N: It's been a long time since I last watched Pokemon so I'm sorry if the personalities aren't perfectly IC. Also, this fic is more about Ash and Misty than about Pikachu. As much as I hate myself for it, Pikachu doesn't have a lot to do with this fic.

Also, I based Ash's merman description on a picture from Elfwood. It's called Mermaid by Sini pakarinen. I know it's technically a mermaid, but I loved the look of it so much I decided to base Ash off of it, also I described there being two fins on the back and each being MUCH larger than in the picture.

The female mermaids were based on another picture from Elfwood called Mermaid by Laura L. Cochrane.

Flooding Waters and Spying Eyes

Brock had never seen Ash in as much of a hurry as he was now. Sure, he was usually impatient, but he was always safe.

He would have never taken this route if something wasn't extremely wrong.

It made him wonder what could have happened that had brought out this side of him.

They were currently under a mountain. A mountain that was currently being drilled through by explosions in order to extend a railway.

The path they were on had been barred. With the explosions, the mountain guides couldn't assure travelers that there wouldn't be a cave in.

Ash would have normally grumbled, but would have taken the longer –but safer- route around the mountain.

Today, he'd hopped over the barring board and said they should hurry through the tunnel.

Brock had hesitantly followed.

The path they were walking on had long ago been carved out of the mountain by a massive river. It had been dammed up a few decades ago, leaving a tunnel going all the way through the mountain, which was then used as a fast path between the towns. Now they were putting in a train tunnel to make travel between the two cities even faster. They hadn't been able to use this path as the tunnel because it ran too close to the dam that held the water which had originally formed the passageway.

As they walked through the dimly lit tunnel, they could hear distant explosions every so often that would rattle stray pebbles on the path, or make dust fall from the ceiling.

A little stream, all that was left of the great river, ran parallel to the path, following it all the way through the mountain.

Brock jumped as one explosion sounded particularly loud. And close.

"Ash, we should turn around. It's dangerous here with them blasting," Brock pleaded with Ash as he kicked some larger pebbles that lay on the pathway.

"We're almost out. It'd take longer to go back than to go forward. It should only be another hour. It's closer to two hours if you want to go back," Ash responded, eyeing the choppy water of the stream.

"Why're we here to begin with?" Brock asked, "Why didn't we go around?"

"It's faster to go straight. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line after all," Ash replied.

The little stream caught a little more flow from the dam and got a little bigger.

"It's dangerous Ash. I can't believe you convinced me to come with you through here," Brock said, his own eyes following Ash's gaze and watching as the water increased in pressure again.

"Not good," Ash whispered, seeing the stream nearly double its size in about ten seconds.

His statement was echoed with a tremble from the ground that was gradually increasing.

Abruptly, he grabbed Brock's arm and dragged him closer to the now swiftly moving river. Ash rummaged around in his bag before pulling out two air breathers, handing the smaller one to Pikachu, he shoved the other into Brocks' hands.

"Put it on now!" he shouted, wading into the swift current of the water.

Misty, who had been silent the entire way, had noiselessly pulled out her own air breather and was fastening it in her mouth as she followed Ash into the water.

"What's going on?" Brock yelled to get over the roaring that had started, following more reluctantly into the water.

"The explosions must have knocked down the dam!" Ash screamed to him, "It's gonna come through here! Put on the breather!" He pushed the air breather in Brocks' limp hands closer to his face.

He waded further into the water, pulling Misty behind a protruding boulder, waving madly for Brock to join them there.

Brock stumbled forward and pressed himself next to them, looking wildly around them like he expected to see a marching band come around the bend in the path ahead of them.

A thought struck him before he put the breather in, "What about you?" he screamed to get over the roaring water.

"Oh For-" was as far as Ash got before shoving the breather in Brocks' mouth and pulling him and Misty under the water right before the flooding wave of water came slamming up behind them, hitting the rock at their backs with such force that it was almost dislodged from its place in the wall.

The three of them clung together against the torrent of water submerging the path underwater.

Slowly, the pressure equalized around them as the rush of water escaped from the now underwater mountain path, restoring the balance it had had those many years ago before it had been dammed.

Breathing harshly, still clinging to his spot on the rock, eyes tightly clenched shut, he heard Misty speak through her breather.

"Great going green man, almost get us killed why don'tcha?" she said, her voice sardonic and a little muffled from the breather filter.

"Oh come on, like I could've known it was gonna flood!" Ash responded immediately, his own voice sounding clearer than Misty's.

"Pi-pika-chu!" Pikachu added his own voice, scolding his trainer in traditional fashion, however forgoing the usual electrical shock as they were all underwater.

"You too Pikachu? Come on, it isn't _my_ fault they didn't set the explosives more carefully!"

Brock slowly opened his eyes to the light blue coloring of being underwater, the light from the electric torches casting an odd glow to the waters that surrounded them. Slowly, he unclenched his fingers from their place on the rock, carefully turning around to look at Ash and Misty.

Incredibly, his reaction was somewhat reminiscent of Misty's.

He screamed so loud that Misty, Ash, and even Pikachu covered their ears, and with such force that he blew his breather out of his mouth.

(Ash made a quick twist of his arm to catch the utensil and shove it back in Brock's mouth, both as a gag, and so he wouldn't drown.)

There, right in front of him, was a merman.

There was no question as to what he was; he was just floating there, with his huge fin flicking lazily behind him. He was green, but a green so light as to be almost white. Its - his – hair was green, as was his lips and fins. The delicate spines in his fins and his hair were lightly iridescent, reflecting the illumination from the lights.

There were two large fins spread out from his back, like two giant wings. The nearly hair-width spines almost transparent and the webbing connecting them shimmering in the low light provided by the electric torches.

"Geeze Brock, a little consideration please!" the merman said in Ash's voice.

Brock stared, the only reason his mouth not aping because of the air breather.

It was too much. Misty broke down into uncontrollable giggles.

Brock, of course, was too stunned to pay her any attention.

Ever so slowly, his eyes rolled up into his head. His body went limp suddenly, drifting in the slight current of the tunnel.

"Um, Brock?" Ash said gently.

There was no response. Not even a twich.

"Helloooo?" Ash drawled out, waving his hand in front of Brocks' face.

Nothing. No response.

Great. Brock had actually fainted. Real manly.

Well, at least he'd stopped screaming.

"Come on. Let's get outta here," Ash said, grabbing Brocks' wrist with one hand and, with a flick of his fin and a ripple of his wing-fins he turned around and began leading the trio out of the tunnel, via towing Brock.

None of them had noticed the little security camera set up in the ceiling that had recorded the entire event.

A/N: Uh-oh, what'll happen next?

Remember, the more reviews I get, the faster I'll add new chapters. I've finally worked out all of the storyline, so now I need the encouragement to write it all out! Even if you've reviewed before, give me any new thoughts on how the story's progressing! I'm eagerly awaiting the news!


	6. Explanations

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

A/N: Wow! This is the longest story I've written! It's all thanks to you guys! Everytime I think about quitting this story, I just look at your reviews and I get more ideas on how to continue it! Keep up the reviews and I'll keep up the story!

On to the next chapter!

Explanations

The water that had carved the route had not been perfectly parallel to the ground, instead sloping slightly downward on one end. This was where man had made one of their only adjustments to the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel there was a little spiral staircase that led up to the surface. Now, the staircase was underwater, and now the opening at the top was like a well, leading to the waters below the ground.

It was from this that Ash hauled the still unconscious Brock out of the water.

Ash was actually becoming a little bit concerned. There was shock, but this seemed a little much. Even Misty had stopped laughing after the first ten minutes.

Ash changed back to human form before he even left the water, after all, who knew who would be on the land and accidentally see him if he came up as a merman.

Misty followed directly after him and together they managed to drag the still limp form of Brock out of the water.

"What's wrong with him Ash?" Misty asked, real concern showing in her voice.

"I don't know," Ash replied looking thoughtfully at his unconscious friend. His eyes widened suddenly and he exclaimed, "But I think I know how to get him out of it!"

Misty looked up at Ash, wondering if it were some merman secret.

Instead, Ash looked over to the side of the path suddenly and exclaimed, "Nurse Joy! Officer Jenny! What are you two doing out here in the woods?"

It worked like a charm.

Jumping up directly from his laying position on the ground, Brock sprung forward like a rocket.

"Oh my beautiful Nurse Joy, and my ever resourceful Officer Jenny! My heart has counted the seconds since last we -…? Hey, where's Joy and Jenny?" Brock asked, looking around to find the two girls.

Misty had collapsed into uncontrollable laughter again. Leave it to Brock to come out of shock-induced unconsciousness at the prospect of a girl to hit on.

Ash meanwhile was letting out a breath of relief. It was only for a moment however because as soon as Brock had recollected his wits, he turned to Ash slowly, the image of the strange merman with Ash's face and voice still haunting him.

"What was… _that_… in there?" he asked gently, pointing to the water they had exited from.

"Um, well, you see…" Ash started before pausing. He glanced around nervously before saying, "Can I tell you at the next Pokemon Center? I don't want to discuss this in the open."

With a slow nod of his head, Brock rose to his feet and started walking away, apparently not noticing that Ash and Misty were staring at his back with shock.

He sure was taking this calmly. Well, _now_ anyway.

Quickly, they both grabbed up their bags and ran after his retreating figure.

There was no discussion as they walked. The prospect seemed redundant since they wouldn't be talking about what Brock was burning to know.

As they walked, Brock's befuddled brain slowly came to some now-obvious conclusions about Ash. Some of those weird little things that didn't make sense were now made perfectly reasonable.

How Ash could _always_ beat Misty at holding their breaths underwater. How he could swim faster than anyone else Brock knew. How he _never _seemed out of breath after swimming.

There were some Team Rocket episodes where he was now sure Ash should have drowned had he not been a merman.

He was okay with Ash being a merman. A little freaked out, but okay with it.

But that still didn't explain _how _Ash was a merman. That was what was really bugging him now.

The PokeCenter came looming up before them before he even realized it. Brock would have in fact walked into the side of the building had Ash not grabbed hold of his arm to halt his forward progress.

"Come on," Ash said gently leading him into the building.

They walked into the PokeCenter and went up to the reception desk, ringing the little bell on the counter.

A Nurse Joy walked into the room via a door behind the desk. Like all Nurse Joys, she had red hair and wore the standard nurse uniform.

"Nurse Joy, while you check over our pokemon, could we have the use of the poolroom?" Ash asked, taking off his pokebelt and setting it on the counter. His two companions followed suit, Brock doing it rather woodenly, like he was on automatic.

"The poolroom?" Nurse Joy asked, eyeing the three rather intensively.

"Yes, I'm a little… _dried_ out," Ash replied, removing one glove casually and pulling it though his hair, deliberately showing his webbed fingers and pointed ear.

Nurse Joy immediately returned to her normal perky self that was characteristic of the entire Joy family. "Oh of course! It's right this way!" she exclaimed.

She walked around the desk and, carrying the three pokebelts, escorted them to a medium sized room that held a good sized pool in the center of it. She smiled as she gestured to some towels and excused herself out to take care of the pokemon.

For a couple minutes, no one spoke in the eerie silence.

Brock was the first to break the quiet.

"So how are you-…" he stopped suddenly, glancing around the room in search of any cameras or recording devices. While he had just learned Ash's secret, he was sure didn't want it publicly known.

"It's okay. There're never recording devices in these rooms," Ash replied to his glances.

Setting down his bag, he sat at the edge of the pool, pulling off first his shoes, then his socks, then his jacket and shirt.

He slid silently into the water, and, right before Brock's stunned eyes, began changing form.

First his hair turned green. For a moment there was a normal Ash with that shimmering green hair that was so bazaar. Then, his skin began lightening in shades until it was almost white, then gaining that pastel green hue. The webbing between his fingers expanded to the tips of the digits, his ears extending to the little finlike design. His wings rose from his back as he extended them as they formed out of his back. Seeing his legs through the water was a little more difficult, but it was possible to see them blending together, then lengthening out by another three or four feet, ending with a streamlined tail.

Ash let out a sigh as he stretched his wing-fins, his tail curling underneath him.

With a yawn, he inquired, "What do you want to know?"

Brock stared for a moment, shocked at seeing the Ash-merman again.

"Um, how are you – well –like this?" Brock asked.

"My entire family is 'like this'," Ash responded. "Not a lot of people know it, but there are lots of merpeople who live on land."

"Merpeople, you mean like real mermaids and stuff?" Brock said.

"Yes like real mermaids and stuff. We diverged from land humans around the same time pokemon diverged from ordinary land animals. We're still human, but we're humans that are adapted to live in water."

Misty perked up her ears. She hadn't known that. She'd been so accepting about his mer-form, that Ash hadn't really felt the need to explain much about merpeople. She walked behind a little screen and started changing into her swimsuit, still listening to the discussion.

"Then why're you on land?"

"We evolved to go back on land a couple hundred years ago. We're really just like normal humans except we can breathe water and have fins."

"Why's there a pool in this PokeCenter?" Brock asked looking around the room.

"There're pools at every PokeCenter. Um, all the Joys are mermaids," Ash replied, ducking his head a little at the expected reaction.

Blink, blink. "Huh?"

Well at least he hadn't screamed it.

"All the Nurse Joys are mermaids. They're from a healing family. That's why they're all identical."

Misty couldn't help but ask, "What about the Officer Jennys?"

"Same deal. They're from a security branch that helps protect the Royal Family."

This was the first time Misty heard about a Royal Family.

"There's a Royal Family?" Misty asked at the same time as Brock.

Ash looked decidedly uncomfortable. "Um, yeah, but we're not allowed to say much about them," he replied honestly. Merpeople weren't allowed to tell land people a lot about the Royal Family. It was a safety precaution.

"Is there a prince?" Misty just had to ask, already fantasizing what the prince must be like, envisioning a dark and regal man wearing lots of jewelry.

"Um, yeah, but I can't say any more about him."

"Don't know him?" Misty joked, coming out from behind the screen and slipping into the water.

Ash gave an uneasy chuckle and shrugged his shoulders.

Brock sat down on the floor by the pool.

"Why hadn't you told me?"

"You ever try telling someone you're a merman?" Ash asked. "They think you're nuts unless they see it for themselves. And you've never noticed! I've been swimming around you _as a merman_ for almost six months!"

Brock blinked, and started laughing.

"Yeah, that sounds like me," he said, shaking his head at his own obliviousness.

Ash dived and smiled.

It was okay. Brock was okay with it. Stunned, but okay.

He was the luckiest prince in the world to have two such good friends that they didn't even mind having a merman as a friend.

A/N: Whad'dya think? Good reaction? Bad reaction? Stupid reaction?

I love reviews, even if they're flames. They inspire me to keep on writing this story!

Also, I'm back in College. I'm still gonna try to keep writing and updating nice and fast. I'm really enjoying this!


	7. Danger in Red

**Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Pokemon.**

A/N: I'm having fun writing this! I've never written so much on a story before! I'm amazed at myself!

does a happy dance Keep reviewing!

P.S. Here's some facts I can't fit into the story, but are good to know. Number one, yes, some clothes are able to transform with merpeople, but they have to be tighter fitting clothes, like pants or shorts and not baggy like a shirt is. Number two, Misty is fanaticizing about the prince as dark and regal because she still hasn't admitted to herself that she really likes Ash, so she's unconsciously making her dream prince the exact opposite of Ash. If I think of other details, I'll add them in later chapters.

P.P.S I updated this chapter with the previous because it's so short!

Danger in Red

They left the PokeCenter bright and early the next day. Ash felt rejuvenated in a way he never would have guessed a person could feel. It felt so great to not be hiding anything from his two best friends.

Well aside from the fact that he was the prince, but really, that wasn't just his secret. That secret concerned all of the mer-population. He couldn't risk that secret no matter how close the friends because the slightest slip-up could spell disaster for all of merkind.

Still, he felt good enough to almost eclipse his concerns over his mother's letter.

Which, in retrospect, was a rather foolish thing to do.

Jessie and James were crouched behind a too-small bush, while Willerd and Sylva stood behind them. The two Red Rockets looked at the other pair with almost contemptuous glares.

Had the Reds any other choice, they would have taken it. Working with these… _imbeciles_ was completely beneath their standing in the Rocket Community.

However, the fact remained that these two were the only ones who were ever able to find the target with any reliability. This was why the Red Rockets were allowing the two idiots to guide them. And so, the situation they were currently in was waiting for the dim-witted morons to spring an even dumber plan to capture a single Pikachu that they had apparently been chasing for almost four years.

How could it take so long to capture one pokemon?

Still, they did have their uses. Their reports had come in quite handy when they had researched the subjects' history. From them, they had been able to surmise a specific timetable of skill advancement over those four years, giving the Red Rockets an idea about not only the subjects' pokemon, but also the subjects own physical and mental state in normal and tense situations.

This information could prove invaluable in capturing the target.

A/N: This chapter is deliberately short for suspense. Don't worry I'll update again soon!


	8. Subjects Abduction

**Disclaimer: I own no characters of Pokemon.**

A/N: I haven't mentioned Willerd and Sylva before. They're the new and mysterious people. They were mentioned in this way to stir your imagination about what was to come. Imagine no more! Here comes the meeting!

Subject Abduction

The well maintained path through the woods came to an abrupt roadblock. In front of them was a large lake with a nicely made bridge over it. However, there was a big bush barring their way.

Almost predictably, there came a gently laughing voice that rang through the trees.

"Prepare for trouble, we're here to sieze!"

"Make that double, hand over Pikachu please!"

"To protect the world from devastation-"

"To unite all people within our nation-"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love-"

"To extend our reach to the stars above-"

"Jessie-"

"James-"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light-"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

The two Rockets jumped out from behind a bush much too small to hide them, striking a pose as Meowth jumped out and landed between them.

"Meowth, dat's right!"

However, their performance did not garner the hoped for reaction.

"Hey Jessie, hey James. You couldn't come back in a couple hours?" Misty asked, almost nonchalantly.

"Huh? Why?" James asked, falling out of his pose.

"No reason really. We were just having a really nice walk," Misty replied.

"Oh, well - "

"No James! We're the bad guys! We don't take requests!" Jessie interrupted.

"Hey, that's right!" James exclaimed, as if suddenly remembering their own position on Team Rocket.

"We're here for Pikachu! Hand him over and we won't make any fight!" Jessie announced proudly, lifting her chin so that the twerps could see her best side of her face.

"Are you guys ever going to give up?" Brock asked in a tired voice.

Jessie arched her perfectly formed eyebrow over her lightly make-upped eye.

"Guess not. Go Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu hopped forward, and with a big, "CCChhhhuuuuu!" sent an electric shock to the two Rockets and Meowth.

They, of course, being electrified, fell down on the ground, smoking a little.

"This never works, does it?" James asked, his face still planted in the ground.

"Be quiet James," Jessie replied, her own face tilted upwards to the sky so her words were much clearer than her partners'.

"Well, let's get going guys," Ash said, stepping around the three lightly scorched bodies lying in the path.

"Not so fast."

Ash halted in his step, looking around for the origination of the voice that didn't sound like Jessie or James.

Suddenly, a woman stepped out from somewhere. Ash had no idea where since she had just seemed to appear from thin air.

"And where do you think you're going?" she asked.

There was no doubt that this woman was beautiful. Perhaps even more so than Jessie, but her beauty was almost painful to look at. Her perfectly made up lips were twisted in an ugly sneer that distorted her entire appearance, like a perverted funhouse mirror. Her black hair was bobbed short, barely passing her ears, and was perfectly maintained. Not a single hair out of place. Her eyes were heavily made up with black make-up, making her eyes look intense and almost frightening.

Beside her, a man stepped out of thin air.

He wasn't handsome. He was too rugged to be considered that. He had several scars on his face, the largest of which ran down through his left eye, arced over the bridge of his nose and followed the line of his cheekbone on under his right eye. It was a ragged scar, slightly twisted looking, which indicated that it had not been properly treated and had not healed correctly. He had a few other scars; one ran through his left eyebrow, one on his chin, and one that traveled diagonally through his lips, making a horrible permanent sneer that was truly frightening.

Both were wearing black outfits with red 'R's on the front. The girl was in a skin tight shirt and miniskirt with thigh high black boots. The man wore plain black pants and shirt.

"Who are you?" Ash asked, warily backing away from them.

The man gave a smile that was nearly nauseating while the girl replied, "I do not believe that concerns you."

Her voice was cultured, almost sweet, but there was a barb in it that made the listener wary and on-edge.

"Hypno, knockout," she said, a light smile on her lips.

"Hypnooo," said the Hypno as it stepped out from somewhere.

Pikachu immediately fell over, fast asleep.

"Pikachu!" Ash exclaimed, scooping up his little friend and cradling it against his chest.

"Now to business," the woman stated, like she was in a boardroom.

"You can't take my Pikachu!" Ash asserted, glaring at the woman.

"Why on earth would we what that little rat?" the woman sneered.

"Dusclops," the man said.

The stout looking one eyed pokemon appeared beside the man. There was no noise, no smoke. It just appeared, like the two humans had.

"Attack."

The word was said with no inflection. No emotion.

The pokemon moved with uncanny speed, appearing before the group almost before the man had finished saying the order.

It slashed forward with its claw-like rock fingers.

Misty screamed and fell forward, clutching her leg.

Ash stared at her for a moment, then looped his free arm under her shoulders, helping her edge away from the obviously dangerous pair. They could only retreat so far however, until they were pinned against the edge of the deep lake.

"Hey, that's not fair!" James cried from behind the two strangers, who paid him no attention.

It wasn't clear whether James was objecting to the strangers treatment of the trio or if he was complaining that they were interrupting their own battle with them.

Moving Misty so rapidly was not a good idea. The abrupt movement only aggravated the wound she had been given by those large claws.

While Misty had too much dignity to let out another shout at the pain, she whimpered in agony, trying to hold the two edges of the wound together to help stop the bleeding.

While Ash had been taking care of Misty, Brock had released his Onyx, only to find it in the same condition as Pikachu. Very soundly asleep.

Ash pulled Misty back further away from the dangerous pair, pulling her a little too quickly.

She wasn't able to contain a screech of pain.

Ash closed his eyes. What else could he do? Obviously all their pokemon had been put to sleep by the Hypno's attack.

Misty was sitting on the ground where she had collapsed when Ash had released her from his grip, one hand clutching her thigh just above a rather horrendous gash that was the product of the two strangers' overzealous attack. The blood running out of it was a rather dark red, signifying the injury to be rather deep. With her other hand she was groping for a cloth in her bag, pulling it out she pressed it against the wound.

Ash stared as the red liquid quickly stained the fabric.

At Misty's pained sob, Ash made a choice that could change his life forever.

Ash put Pikachu gently on the ground and jumped backward, diveing into the water that lay just in behind them.

"Misty, tell me what to do," he said as he surfaced, now in his merman form.

"What?" Misty asked, tying the cloth around her leg to try and stop the bleeding.

"Command me!" Ash yelled at her, a little impatient.

"Um….hydro pump?" she said a little hesitantly, not quite understanding what Ash wanted her to do.

It was enough. Ash folded his arms in front of him, his hands spaced as if he were holding a basketball at his chest, then he shot them forward. A giant cyclone of water sprang from his hands hitting both the enemy's pokemon with the force of a tsunami. The Hypno was knocked all the way into a tree about ten feet behind the woman. When it fell to the floor its eyes were little swirls. The other was thrown back and collided with its own trainer, putting the pokemon out of commission and injuring the owner slightly.

The woman smirked slightly, making her look ugly. She recalled the Hypno and threw a different pokeball in front of her.

"Kadabra, Reverse Teleport," she commanded.

Huh?

Misty vanished from her place on the ground by Ash and appeared in front of the two strangers.

The man immediately put a rag over her mouth.

Misty's eyes flickered. Then slowly drifted closed.

Both the woman and the man smirked.

"Bye-bye," the woman sang, before all three humans and both pokemon disappeared.

Misty. They'd kidnapped Misty.

Ash stared stupidly at the place Misty had been just a minute before. The ground was still soaked with her blood.

"Ash," Brock tried to gain his attention, but it was apparent the Ash was in shock.

Not surprising when the girl you love had just been abducted.

"Oh my god," two voices said in unison.

Brock turned and saw Jessie and James staring at Ash in awe, Meowth laying on the ground. Apparently he'd fainted.

How were they going to explain this?

Back in the Rocket's lab, a new specimen had been added to the growing collection of individuals in isolation tubes.

The doctor on duty glanced over the new subject's information and smiled.

"I think this one will work quite well," he told Willerd and Sylva. "Pity you weren't able to get your second objective."

"We were not sure we would be able to extract our main objective if we delayed too long," Sylva explained.

"True. We have more than enough merpeople to experiment on. But she's something special…" the doctor turned back to the figure floating in the tube.

"Now where should we begin…?" he asked himself, smiling at the red haired girl in the tube.

A/N: I bet you all thought the objective was to kidnap Ash right?

What's going to happen now? Misty's been kidnapped and Jessie and James knows Ash's big secret?

Stay tuned for the next chapter of The Ashy Merman and remember, I write faster with encouragement. I.e. reviews.

By the way, the whole stepping out of thin air thing is the two of them hiding behind an invisible wall their pokemon made. It's different than the walls Mimey make. Anything behind the wall is not seen through the wall. It's harder for pokemon to learn, so not a lot can do it. The Reverse Teleport makes it so that Kadabra teleports something _to_ itself instead of teleporting itself _away_ from something. Like the Invisible wall, it's a hard thing to learn so most people don't know about it.

P.S. I'm having another vote. This one's to determine _why_ Misty's special.

1. Misty's genetic structure is special.

2. One of Misty's parents is a Team Rocket experiment.

3. Misty's an escaped Team Rocket experiment that was adopted.

4. Suggestions welcome.

I'm gonna wait for ten reviews/votes before I write the next chapter so when the reviews are in, I'll finish the story around the winning vote.

Have fun!


	9. Coming to Terms

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, but I do own the plot line of this story.**

A/N: Thanks for the suggestions, but the best idea actually came from my older brother. I know: _I _have an older brother. Yes, I do. He's a little brain-damaged, but he can be really smart. So, here's the next chapter!

Coming to Terms

Ash changed back into human form and climbed back on the land, his face strangely calm.

Which was why Brock was so nervous.

Jessie and James however, didn't know Ash well enough to know that a calm Ash was _not_ a good thing.

"Wait a second, twerp, what was _that_?" Jessie asked, staring pointedly at the water from which he had emerged.

"Yeah, what was that?" James echoed.

"We'll explain later," Brock said abruptly, pushing Ash in front of him back down the path to the Pokemon Center that they had left just a little while ago.

"Don't think you can lose us! We still wanna know what just happened!" James exclaimed, running after them.

Jessie hesitated long enough to pick up the unconscious Meowth and the still peacefully sleeping Pikachu before following her partner.

"Oh dear! Whatever happened?" Nurse Joy exclained as the four people came in, Brock leading the still dazed Ash.

"A Rocket problem," Brock said, guiding Ash to a seat.

"Oh, _really_?" Nurse Joy asked, giving a not quite lethal glare at the two Rockets.

"Not _them_," Brock replied, "Some Red Rockets."

"Ohh! Oh, _my_! Is everyone alright?"

"That's the thing. They took Misty."

"Oh _dear_!"

Jessie rolled her eyes, exclaiming, "This is all well and good, but that still doesn't explain how the twerp just changed into a – mmphh!"

Brock had clamped his hand over her mouth before she could say that one world that had changed his world forever. It wasn't secure here.

Abruptly, Brock understood a lot more of Misty and Ash's conversations. They had been coding their words so no one overheard Ash's secret. Even accidentally.

"We're going to the poolroom Nurse Joy," he said, nearly dragging Jessie behind him as he headed to the mentioned room. That room he was sure was safe.

"Of course," Nurse Joy replied, guiding Ash by the arm so he would follow them.

She unlocked the special room and escorted them in, then retired to look after the two sleeping pokemon that had been left on a couch in the reception hall.

Brock took the easy way out and simply pushed Ash in the pool.

Turning to the Rockets, he exclaimed, "Do you want _more _people to know about Ash?"

"Well, how was he able to do that? What is he? Why haven't we seen this before?" Jessie retorted.

"You really think this is something Ash wants to advertise? And why would he tell you two? You're Rockets! You're always trying to steal Pikachu!" Brock replied, adding as much bite to the words as he could, even though he knew these two Rockets weren't all that bad.

"Well if we didn't someone else would!" Jessie snapped.

………………….

Wow. So this was a stunned silence.

"Are you saying you've been keeping the worse Rockets off our backs?" Brock asked, his voice deceptively calm as his brain was going a mile a minute.

"_No!_ We've been… been trying to capture Pikachu! Like our job says we should!" Jessie protested.

"After four _years_ I'd think you'd have managed it," Brock said, his mind connecting all those pieces of their adventures that had never made sense. "I think you've been helping us."

"How-how absurd! We- we're Team Rocket! We steal pokemon!"

"And you've always been there to get us out of a crunch when we really needed help," Brock said.

"Well, we couldn't just let you all_ die_," Jessie said softly.

"Do you really want to be in Team Rocket?" Brock asked.

"Well, it's a living," Jessie replied with a shrug.

"It sucks," James interrupted. "Shouldn't he have come up by now?" he asked, looking into the pool at the body sitting at the bottom.

"He'll come up when he's ready," Brock replied, "Why don't you quit?"

"Well, we've never had anything else to fall back to," Jessie said.

"Oh please, everyone knows James is from a rich family."

"You think I'm going to go crawling back to my parents for money!" James exclaimed, disgusted.

"We do have some pride you know," Jessie announced.

Brock was silent for a long moment. "Maybe we can all win here," he said, looking at the two reluctant Rockets.

Two hours, and a reluctant Officer Jenny later, there was an agreement that had been reached. It was a rather good solution for all involved. It released Jessie and James from their dependency on having to be Rockets and it gave them the inside help they needed to find Misty.

Ash had surfaced about an hour ago and had given his own opinion in the decision.

"Tomorrow, we're going to get Misty back," he announced in a voice that brooked no dispute.

A/N: I know, not much about Ash, but I figured if I went into how he was feeling it'd take too many pages, so I focused on other things, like how Jessie and James dealt with the surprise of Ash.

Wanna know what the agreement is?

Well you'll just have to wait awhile.


	10. Gambles and Choices

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character in Pokemon, but this is an original storyline.**

A/N: I know, the last chapter was short, but it was really an intermediary chapter.

P.S. Ri2 did bring up some points that I feel I should clarify.

1. Jessie and James failing on purpose?

Not directly on purpose. They are trying to kidnap Pikachu, but their own kindness (deeply buried) raises its head whenever they face off against Ash. With both of them being the underdog where they came from, they feel a little camaraderie with Ash and this interferes with them while they're making plans, which makes the plans have flaws that they don't see because they're too close to the situation. I hope you guys understand that. I'm not sure how to put it simpler.

2. Keeping worse Rockets off the twerps backs?

Again, they're not doing it consciously. They're not good Rockets because they have too much empathy for the underdogs, causing them to be the laughingstock of Team Rocket. As long as they're kept busy, no one has to deal with them, so Giovanni has kept them on a case they found just to keep them out of everyone's hair. He really doesn't take their reports on Pikachu's power seriously because he thinks that their idiots. Because he's kept them on a case they're willing to keep working on (for whatever reason) he hasn't gotten a _real _report on how strong Pikachu actually is (Butch and Cassidy don't count since they're almost as bad as Jessie and James). In this way, Jessie and James have been able to keep the more dangerous Rockets from attacking Ash and company because they don't believe the reports and thus don't think Pikachu is a worthy prize. It's completely unintentional, but it is due to them.

Jessie and James? Kind?

Like I said, it's from themselves being underdogs. They feel a connection with Ash. I'm not saying they're angels, but they are kind deep down inside, which is also why they have on occasion, helped them and _not_ tried to take advantage of the situation to steal Pikachu.

James and his fiancée?

Yes, he's scared of his fiancée, and that is a really big reason he doesn't want to go to his parents, but like any man, he also has some pride. He's not going to go crawling back to his parents for money because it would one, demean him as a man, and two, give them a bigger position to push him into marriage with Jessica. Also, do you really think a man with _any_ pride would admit that he doesn't want to go home because he's scared of his fiancée?

I hope this helped alleviate some confusion.

Now, on with the story!

Gambles and Choices

The four of them set out early in the morning, before the sun had even risen. While Jessie and James knew about Ash, they were still in the dark about _why_ he was the way he was. However, they did have some extremely valuable information.

Apparently there was a Rocket facility not that far from where they were presently. It was being used for some research that Jessie and James weren't privileged to know. However, they were aware that this facility had been where they had rendezvoused with the Red Rockets they had been guiding, and they, being the curious people they were, had investigated. They hadn't been able to find out much, but there was a lot more scientists than there were supposed to be in such a small and relatively unknown facility. There was also a ridiculously high amount of security that hadn't been there just a few months ago.

This was considered the prime location to begin the search for Misty.

The group was going to use Jessie and James' security codes to get into the facility, with Jessie and James leading in the 'captured' Ash and Brock.

Ash watched as the two tied the rope tightly around his wrists, his eyes watching intently on the way the knot was tied. It could be vital to know how to untie it without those two. This was a risky gambit. He couldn't take the chance that they'd actually get to the separation point without mishap.

He tried to look downcast and disheartened as they lead both him and Brock into the growth of the forest, far away from the warm sunlight and the vital waters he needed.

He would have felt more comfortable if he'd had Pikachu, but for the ruse to be effective, he'd had to let them put his Pikachu in an electric-proof cage.

This had to look real to be successful. Otherwise, they would all be in trouble.

It was a large gamble to rescue one girl; but it was Misty. Ash's royal training was insisting that one girl was not enough to risk the future of the merfolk on. But his own heart demanded that he do whatever necessary to get her back. He just couldn't leave her to Team Rockets evil plans.

Who knew what they planned to do with her.

Distantly, he had made himself admit the possibility that this may all be an elaborate scheme to trap him. But he couldn't believe that. The Red Rockets could have abducted him as easily as they had Misty. So why didn't they? Why did they want Misty instead of him? A revealed merman?

The only answer he could think of was that they wanted her for something they couldn't do to a merman.

Rape, maybe?

But then why her? There had to be plenty of other, more available full-grown women to choose from. Why had they kidnapped a perfectly normal fifteen year old?

What was going on in their twisted minds?

Jessie and James lead them to a large undergrowth, concealed almost completely from the low light and the plant life surrounding it.

They could have walked a foot away from it and would never have seen it.

No one stopped to question them. They were just two Rockets bringing in more research subjects as far as anyone else knew.

They were lead through a maze of corridors before arriving at what looked like a cellblock.

James carefully untied the rope from around Ash and Brock's wrists.

"The lab is straight through there," Jessie said, nodding to a door opposite them, her hands already working the latch on the cage and releasing Pikachu.

The door was enormous. Probably to intimidate the research subjects that were captured. There was no handle, no windows. There was, however, a keypad on the right side that was accompanied by an optical scanner.

"We're going to get to the fire alert system. Remember, you only have about ten minutes before we set off the alarm. You should be able to slip out in the confusion. You have to get everything done before then," Jessie continued.

With a curt nod of his head, the group parted ways. Jessie and James slipping back out the main door, back into the twisting maze of endless corridors.

Now they had to find a way into the labs.

Giovanni looked impassively at the closely monitored container. The girl floating inside it was going to be his key to achieving all his goals. With her, his plans would surely come to be reality.

He'd never let her go. He'd taken precautions for such.

No one believed him, except for his pet scientist who would believe anything Giovanni told him. But that was alright.

As long as he was obeyed, it really didn't matter what his underlings thought.

Now, all he had to do was control her.

He was looking forward to breaking her will.

A/N: I know. This is a meaner chapter than most. It contains themes that were not suitable for young children so I upped the rating. I couldn't continue the story without illustrating how cruel Team Rocket really is.

So, how do you want them to get in the lab?

1. Through an air duct

2. Catch the door before it closes when someone enter/leaves

3. Knock someone out and use them to open the door (the retinal scan)

4. Suggestions welcome

P.S. I know for a fact that there are non-pokemon fish in the pokemon world because you see them in a fish tank during the episode of "The Misty Mermaid."

I feel vindicated.

P.P.S. Sorry the chapters aren't longer. I'm working full time with school, so I don't really have a lot of time to write. I'm still writing this story solely because of the encouragement of you readers. Otherwise I would have quit by now and used the time to get some extra sleep.

P.P.S.S. Review please!


	11. People Are Stupid

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character in this story.**

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful responses and suggestions! Some of the suggestions, while I didn't take them, lead me to this solution.

Val brought up a good point in that lots of people go through air ducts to sneak into bad guy's hideouts. Any decent smart bad guy would have some kind of surveillance system on that entry point. Cameras or motion sensors. Whatever. Also, the third suggestion, while plausible, _is_ against Ash and Brock's character and I don't want to take the too far OOC.

ipcryss said Ash should turn into a merman and have Brock command him to use water attacks to break into the lab. This was a really good idea, until I remembered something I had decided when I started making this fanfic. Ash is a merman, and while they can do pokemon attacks, can even be ordered by humans, it requires a level of trust almost no human reaches with merpeople. Even though Ash knows Brock really well, Brock just doesn't rank high enough on the trust-meter to command him. Only Misty's high enough. It's like on Pokemon Ruby or any other game. The trainer has to have the trust of his pokemon to order around really high level pokemon. It's just the same. And, like pokemon, merpeople can do attacks on their own, but it's always stronger when commanded by a trainer, or by someone they trust and love.

Ri2 gave a really well thought out plan for getting into or out of the lab that I may have used if I hadn't already scripted their escape, and they couldn't enter or leave the lab in a hail of gunfire or I'd have to totally rewrite the entire ending.

And so I came up with this solution, that while not very detailed, fits well into the entire storyline without taking Ash and Brock OOC. So thanks to everyone who reviewed, I can continue the story in a realistic and original way.

People Are Stupid

Brock stood looking at the too-small air duct by the door.

"Why don't you go through there and open the door from the other side?" he asked.

"This kind of lock will undoubtedly have a twin on the other side. I can't open it from either side without a code," Ash replied, leaning down to the floor, pressing his ear flat to the ground. Closing his eyes, he devoted all his being to listening for that pulse of life-giving water.

There.

There was a water line not too far under the flooring, the water rushing harsh and strong, furious at being caged and confined in a weakening pipe.

"I think I found a way in," Ash said, smiling from his place on the ground.

* * *

The scientists and medical doctors inside the labs were hurrying about their jobs, conducting countless tests on less than willing patients. 

It was an average day. They recorded new data from their subjects after exposing them to a new set of variables. These variables differed from one subject to the next, but they were always discomforting to some degree.

They had all experienced countless days like this in the past and expected nothing new to happen today.

They were wrong.

The air duct by the laboratory entrance suddenly burst apart, water rushing in through the small opening.

An unfortunate attendant who had happened to be walking by it at the time, was thrown from his place by the violent gush of brutally surging water that was quickly flooding the medium sized lab.

It was said that a single person is smart. But people are stupid.

This saying was proven quite true as the people in the lab immediately panicked, rushing the door like a herd of stampeding Rapidash. There was a mighty struggle for someone to open the door for them to get out of the flooding lab.

With one last fight over the keypad to unlock the door, the door opened, spilling water, scientists, doctors, and attendants out into the subject cellblock.

There was a mighty scramble to get to their feet and flee the still flooding waters that was still rising.

"Okay. That was a good idea," Bock said from his place behind the large door, which was jammed open by the still rushing water and the various instruments dropped by the scientists.

"It's just like I said. Multiple people in a little place that's getting smaller always panic," Ash replied, "especially when they can't breath underwater."

The pair waded through the still rising water, looking for any indication of Misty.

There hadn't been much time since the kidnapping, so there was a good possibility that if Misty wasn't still here herself, that the information on her whereabouts wouldn't be hidden and would be relatively easy to find.

There hadn't been any flying service in this area for several weeks, and the abduction had been reported quickly enough for a barricade to have been set up which inspected all people leaving to area with anything larger than a six inch package. There was still the chance that she had been teleported out, but if that were the case there would still be information on her around here.

Looking around, Ash wondered about another door on the opposite side of the lab. This one was far less impressive, but somehow felt more important. He couldn't stop himself from reaching forward and opening the door.

A/N: It's short, I know. I'm gonna do the next chapter within a few days. Then the pace should start picking up.


	12. The Beasts and the Beauty

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character in Pokemon.**

A/N: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

P.S. Pretend Ash and Brock have 20 minutes to get everything done and get out.

The Beasts and the Beauty

Ash walked past an emergency exit and through seemingly endless aisles of unmoving subjects in gigantic specimen jars.

Some were human. Some were pokemon. And some were indiscernible into which category they had originally belonged.

In one tube would be a Skitty with a surgically attached human head. In the next would be a Wailmer with tentacles and a set of human hands. In the next would be a confused looking Magicarp with a pair of legs where its tail ought to have been.

It was impossible to guess if these subjects were even alive.

The further along he traveled down the aisle he went, the smoother the combinations became.

A Jolteon with a Rapidash's hooves and tail. A Goldeen with a tail of a Dewgong. A Delcatty with a Pidgey's wings.

That one was actually pretty cool looking.

Then, there came the missing merpeople.

To Ash's immense relief, very little appeared to have been done to them. Close inspection revealed that tissue samples had been extracted, and there were wires connected to them, leading to complex looking machines. It was probably taking scientific readings so the scientists could try and discern how merpeople were able to do pokemon attacks.

Next came a nightmare.

Apparently the scientists had been trying to combine mer-D.N.A. with humans. Maybe trying to get humans with pokemon attacks?

The results their experiment had achieved however, was horrific.

It appeared that while interbreeding between the two races was alright, doing genetic manipulations caused some appalling results.

The worst ones looked like something out of a cheap mutant horror movie.

Skins covered in a slimy sheen. Eyes protruding from their sockets, bulging outward so dramatically that the eyelids were no longer able to perform their function. Gaping holes where noses had once been, now reabsorbed, along with missing lips, leaving teeth exposed in a permanent gruesome macabre grin.

Most of them also had lost their hair. The ones who had retained some, it was lank and seemed as if it were in the middle of falling out.

The majority had been stopped there in their transformation, but there were a few others that were further along.

These were the ones who had actually formed tails, but they were twisted, misshapen things, totally unusable for swimming.

The legs had melted together, the ankles fused into one piece, the toes elongated to provide a framework for webbing that wasn't there. Their fingers were drawn out in a similar way, and, lacking the webbing, looked more like claws than anything else.

At the end of these were some more successful genetically mutated people.

This meant that they had fully formed tails and looked mostly like a merperson.

There were five subjects, three boys and two girls.

Most of them were muted grayed out colors, very different from normal merpeople colors. The tails were still different, but likely useable.

The first in line was a man, this one bald. He was a blue grey a little darker than a stormy sky. Like someone had thrown up over a beautiful picture of a thundercloud.

His bare head was dappled with almost grey spots that ran down his head and stopped on his shoulders.

His hands and torso were more or less correct, but his tail, while probably functionable, was still significantly different.

Spines began extruding from where his knees had probably once been, following either side of his tail down to the tip. Hard looking webbing connected each spine to the ones next to it and to the main body. The result was the entire lower half of the tail was used as the fin surface.

The second one, another male, was a murky green, like the slime one would find in an old moat. This one was again hairless with the upper body slimy looking, but otherwise correct.

It was again the tail that displayed his true nature as a mutation experiment.

It was the same long and slim design of a merman's tail, but on its end there was no fin. Instead there was a club-like structure attached to the very tip of the tail. It was from this structure that the swimming spines and webbing protruded, making a strange ovular fin at the tip of the tail.

The third in line was a female, whose hair was thin and lanky, but matched perfectly with her rotten plum purple coloration. She was very similar to the normal merwomen except for three items. One, her tail fin was much smaller than any merwomans'. Two, she had no little fins on her tail. Three, along her arms were small webs that followed from her wrist to her underarm. These webs totally lacked the supportive spines that were normally found in fins, but were probably sufficient in assisting her swimming, perhaps compensating for her tiny tail fin.

Despite this, it was easy to tell that she was a much more successful experiment than the two previous. In addition to retaining some hair, she also possessed normal eyes, nose and lips. Things the other two had lacked.

The next was another male. He was younger than the other two men, being barely out of boyhood, but he was certainly older than Ash.

He had retained all of his hair, the fashion indistinct from the way it floated in a halo around his head. He also had perfectly proportioned eyes, nose, and lips which appeared completely unchanged.

His coloring was a slate brown, a little on the dull side, but a perfectly reasonable shade for a merman to be. He, however, was lacking the very distinctive back fins all merman had, and his tail was again incorrectly formed.

It was similar to the first experiment's tail in that the fins were formed in a structure going down either side of the tail. However, like the previous experiment, it lacked any spines, making it look like a medium sized ruffle-like fin going down to the tip of the tail, which, oddly enough, curled back on itself like a Horsea's tail.

The last was the other female and she was… beautiful.

No.

Absolutely breathtaking.

Her hair, a crimson amber and a little past her shoulders, drifted softly around her face, shifting from one color to another through the spectrum between the two shades as the light hit it. Her upper body was a golden of the lightest shade, with the subtlest of undertones in oranges and reds. It wasn't until a forth of the way down her sleek tail that her colors began becoming more bold, starting as a yellow, then a solid gold, before shifting in turn to orange, red, and finally into a brilliant hue of fuchsia-pink. The little fins along her tail displayed the same color shift, as did her ear fins… an attribute none of the other experiments possessed, but which were long and delicate, reaching above her head in fragile peaks. Her tail fin was… beyond extravagant. Even in the confined specimen container, it moved and rippled with a sensual grace that was almost hypnotic. The color of a summers dawning, the reds, golds, pinks and oranges all intertwining to form a vibrant display of colors not unlike her small fins but which shown brightly even in the lowly lit room they were in.

The color shift of the tail was only interrupted by radiant crimson stripes that started at her waist, then worked their way down the entirety of her tail.

The whole effect was rather stunning.

Ash had never seen so many colors on a single mer-person before, and definitely not in such resplendent hues. Each color by itself seemed to glow independently of any other light source. Perhaps this was her evidence of her origins, her little idiosyncrasy that marked her as an experiment, just as the other four had their own little differences from merpeople that marked them as experiments as well.

However, as betraying as they were, Ash couldn't even think that he disliked them. Every aspect of her -mutation or not- was absolutely gorgeous. They were so exotic, and they complimented her coloration so well. And her coloration! It was magnificent! So completely unlike any merperson he'd ever seen before.

But this was no time to become distracted. There was too much to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

When Ash spoke, it was commanding, but not imposing. "Brock, get all of the living ones out. You don't have much time. I'll continue on to find Misty."

His tone was almost completely emotionless.

Brock, startled that Ash had known he was there, nodded before saying something that lifted Ash's heart immensely. "I found a file on Misty. It says she's in Lab alpha-three-seven."

Ash whipped around to look at Brock, who gave a smile which displayed neither joy nor pity, showing him a map that he'd torn from a wall, and pointed to a room located at the other end of this very chamber.

"It's right there."

After this, Brock handed the map to Ash and set about inspecting every container to locate which subjects were alive and which had passed on.

Ash took one last look at that remarkable experiment… no… at that remarkable girl and began running in the direction of the alpha-three-seven lab. The lab hidden behind rows of test subjects. The lab where Misty was.

Pikachu dashed after him, following at Ash's heels.

* * *

"How is she responding Doctor?" Giovanni asked, his voice as emotional as a block of ice.

"Not well. The initial fail safe has been completed, but she is resisting any psychological tampering with a determination that is quite surprising. It is unusual for one so young to have such a strong will."

Giovanni smiled. "I suppose it does not matter. Try as she may, she will not win. Her resistance will make the victory that much sweeter," he said. "Inform me when stage two begins."

"Yes sir."

He had barely exited the small monitoring lab through the side exit which opened directly into his own office when a call came in on his communicator. Annoyed, he answered with a terse, "_What?_"

The voice through the speaker was nervous and rather startled, "Um, sir. We, I mean… there's a - um - water main break in – um - Lab one-zero-gamma."

"Well, send someone to fix it fool, before it floods the entire base."

"Oh! Uh, very well sir! I'll get right on it!" the man said, hopping off the phone as quickly as possible and promising himself that he'd never get stuck being the one to have to call Giovanni with bad news ever again.

A/N: What do you think? I saw some prettier versions of these merpeople on elfwood and I just had to include them in this fanfiction. I know, it's a waste of time, but I wanted to illustrate how Team Rocket have been doing experiments not only on human and pokemon, but on merpeople too, trying to achieve a human-merpeoson hybrid. I loved how different these merpeople were from what you normally see.

Anyway, I'd love some new reviews! I'm hooked on reviews now! It's so nice to see that my idea is being appreciated by so many people! I didn't think it was all that good, so I'm completely flattered that you guys like it!

I have only three weeks of externship left now! I'm halfway done!

Did I tell you guys? I'm in La Cordon Bleu and I'm only two weeks away from graduating! I'm afraid this is why my updates take so long. I'm so tired by the time I get home that I don't have the energy to write a lot before I have to go to bed to get up early in the morning and get to work.

I'm still planning on finishing this story. I have it all worked out, it's just a matter of getting it all together and on paper.

Well, anyway, I hope you're enjoying this story and that you keep reading it!

P.S. I'm going to have more amalgam pokemon later in the story, but I'm too lazy to think of more. So any mix pokemon suggestions would be appreciated and probably used. Credits for created pokemon will be listed on the fanfiction.


	13. The Informer

**Disclaimer: I don't own any Pokemon characters.**

A/N: This is harder to write than I thought. I have to balance what I reveal in every chapter with how quickly the story line develops. It's causing some problems.

Still, I hope you like how it's going. I've read lots of really good stories that totally flop at the ending. I **_SO_** don't want mine to do that, so I'm trying real hard to keep it consistent and interesting. If you guys **don't** like how it's going, GREAT! Give me a review with a better idea and I'll change the bad chapter! This is a story for everyone! I'm just the idiot who thought of it! Suggestions are ALWAYS welcomed!

P.S. I REALLY NEED some pokemon amalgams! I seriously cannot finish this story without at least 5 amalgams. I've got almost everything else of the story written, so if I get the amalgams, I can finish this story in 1 – 2 weeks!

The Informer

Giovanni sat at his desk, looking through the pages of information collected from the merpeople. They were a fascinating race. Human enough for them to have individual thought, pokemon enough to have actual attacks. Now all that was left was to take away their free will and the applications for them would be near limitless.

He could use them as pokemon. With their higher thought processes, he wouldn't have to waste valuable time with the standard warnings. They would dodge incoming attacks on their own defense abilities and he could concentrate on attacks.

Or they could be used as spies. Their unique ability in water made them perfect spies, slipping into remote locations where his enemies thought were safe. Being surrounded by water did have it's advantages. Boats were easily seen and submarines could be detected by underwater sensors. Giovanni had used this tactic himself on more than one occasion.

This was where the merpeople could slip by the defenses. They were too small to be detected by the sensors. They'd read as fish or pokemon, allowing to slip in close to steal whatever vital secrets were being kept at such facilities.

They would also be good assassins for the same reason.

And if he could find a way to duplicate their shape-shifting powers and give it to his Rockets, his organization would know no equal. He could rule the Pokemon League. Steal as many pokemon as he wanted.

And if he was able to break that girl, he could even rule the world.

He would have to give his thanks to his informer. None of this would have been possible without him. He had proved instrumental in capturing and experimenting on the merpeople, even going so far as to explain how the merpeople were able to shape-shift. Once this crucial information had been obtained, it was relatively easy to design a virus that would cut them off from their abilities. And without their natural defenses, they were easy to capture.

Yes, he would definitely have to reward his informer.

This had proved to be the most profitable operation in all his time as being Leader of the Team Rocket.

Hitting an intercom button, he ordered for the informer to be escorted to his office.

A/N: I know it's short. But I need the amalgams to continue this story!


	14. Opening Doors

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

A/N: The last chapter was short on purpose. I didn't want to give you too much information on the traitor and a new chapter is the best way to do a massive scene shift.

Opening Doors

Brock fiddled with the controls on the first container, trying everything he could think of to get the container to release its captive.

It had been relatively easy to determine which were alive and which were… no longer there.

There was a little light on the side of each container, a light which was always one of two colors. If the light was red, the subject was no longer living. If the light was green, the subject was still alive.

As Brock had expected, all of the more blunt combinations had not survived, but almost all of the more graceful combinations were alive. Including the last five mutated mer-like humans.

Giving into his frustration, Brock slammed his fist into the access panel. The metal gave a shriek as it bent under the force applied.

Suddenly, the first containment tube opened. The container sank straight into the floor. The creature was carried to the floor in a wave of suspension liquid.

Quickly, Brock drew out one of his multiple of empty pokeballs (he was the one who always bought and carried the empty pokeballs for Ash and Misty since they both normally forgot) and threw it at the still unconscious pokemon. Being still sedated, the pokemon gave no fight to being captured and was immediately sucked into the pokeball.

Brock hurriedly kicked off a small but sturdy two by four bar that was only lightly attached to the now descended container (his hand still hurt from hitting the first panel). Hefting it aloft, he brought it down with all his might onto the control panel of the second container. It gave the same breaking sound and the second container sank into the flooring as well.

Grabbing a second pokeball, Brock repeated the procedure.

This was going to be easier than he thought.

* * *

Ash came to a stop at the end of the corridor like room. In front of him was… a wall.

There didn't seem to be a doorway or any other type of entryway.

Frantic, Ash traced his fingers all over the wall, looking for some latch or secret button that might reveal a way into the room he knew to be there.

Nothing revealed itself to him.

Precious minutes ticked by as he searched.

Now desperate, he searched everywhere he could think of. The bottom of the wall, the plaster behind the caulking of the wall seams, anywhere anything cold be hidden.

Just about to give up and use a hydro pump on the wall (or ask Pikachu for a thunderbolt), a panel suddenly opened.

Ash just barely dodged in time to avoid being smacked in the face with a very soundly built door.

Ducking behind the panel, he saw a man in a scientist coat exit from the panel, ducking his head slightly to avoid hitting his forehead on the low beam.

Stepping out, he pulled out a clipboard with some information on it, murmuring to himself, "Let's see, she's…"

It was at this moment that the man realized he was standing in several inches of water.

"Huh?"

Ash took the moment of distraction and leapt forward.

"Pikachu, thundershock!" he cried, pointing his finger at the man in front of them.

Pikachu hopped forward, giving a "CCHhhhuuuu!" as he let forth the requested thundershock.

Ash had, however, forgotten they were all in water.

The slightly fried scientist sank down to sit in the water, dazed by the energy that had just run through his body. While not lethal, it was still enough to stupefy him for quite awhile.

Ash found himself in a slightly similar situation. Shaking himself free of the last clinging vestiges of the electric shock, he silently thanked whatever god happened to be listening that he'd developed a rather high resistance to the electric shocks from his Pikachu. Otherwise, he would have been in much the same state than the scientist was in.

Shaking himself once more, he ducked in through the doorway and found himself in a remarkably small lab.

It was outfitted with a small desk, a medium sized chemical table, and a huge computer.

But there was no Misty. There wasn't even enough room to put a containment cylinder in this lab.

So where was she?

A/N: What do you think?

Don't worry, the next chapter will be coming soon.


	15. A Traitor

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

A/N: Sorry it's so short. The chapters will be getting longer soon. This is ultra short so it has a second chapter right after it.

A Traitor

Ash lost the last shred of patience he had left.

"Pikachu! Thunderwave!" he ordered, jumping up onto the wooden desk.

Pikachu jumped forward. With a loud "CCCCCHHHHHHUUUUUUU!" it let forth three waves of incredibly focused energy.

The lab, which was still dry as the water hadn't managed to seep into this secure room yet, began giving off explosions as the energy first detonated the chemicals in the small laboratory, then attacked the massive computer with a giant discharge of power.

The lab was reduced to rubble within ten seconds. Nothing was salvageable from the wreckage.

The attack had one other effect.

It had shorted out the other door in the room, which opened without a sound.

What was behind the door was enough to shock even Ash.

"Gary?"

A/N: There's another chapter after this one.


	16. Revelations of a Traitor

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

A/N: Read the note at the end of the chapter. It should answer some questions.

Revelations of a Traitor

With the door open, Ash could only gape at the two people that were now revealed.

"Gary?" he whispered, shock making his voice fail. The word, however, proved enough to disrupt the conversation being held by the two individuals.

Gary's lip curled back in unconcealed disdain.

"Well, if it isn't Ashy-boy," he sneered.

"What are you doing here?"

"What do you think you dolt?"

Things finally started making sense. The merpeople disappearing, but only selected ones. Entire merpeople towns didn't disappear, only the ones that Professor Oak had contact with. Ones Gary had known while he had been growing up.

"You've been betraying the merpeople? Why?" Ash exclaimed in that quite and shocked voice.

Giovanni calmly watched the confrontation, discreetly pushing a button under his desk for security to make their way into his office and capture the intruder.

"You're one of them aren't you? That actually makes sense. No wonder you're so inferior to me. And don't pretend you don't know why. You _things _disgust me. Contaminating the human race with your _filthy_ blood."

"But, we rescued you. Professor Oak gave you a home."

"Ah, yes. _Grandpa_. He's no different from all the others. Always reminding me that I was different from his _family_. You things, always acting superior to the true race, acting all proud and distinguished when you're nothing but an evolutionary mistake. Genetic garbage that should serve the true race. You're lower than pokemon. You all deserve to be nothing but slaves."

It was then that Ash came to the sad truth. Gary Oak, adopted grandson to the famous Professor Oak, was insane. And he would stop at nothing to subjugate and destroy the merpeople society.

A/N: Okay, you're probably confused.

Gary was a human baby found in Pallet town. Professor Oak adopted him as his grandson and raised him with his biological granddaughter. Gary grew up knowing about merpeople, but was secretly insanely jealous at the difference between himself and his adopted 'family' since he always saw how much better the merpeople were at things from normal humans. He knew of some mer-families, but was kept in the dark about the Royal family because he's human. That's why Ash and his family weren't the first ones turned in; Gary didn't know about them. However, the families he did know of, he immediately turned in to Team Rocket. His jealousy eventually completely unhinged his mind and now he's the ultimate racist against merpeople. His fondest dream is to collect every merperson and torture them to death.


	17. The Judgment

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

The Judgment

Ash squeezed his eyes shut, unwanted memories of playing with Gary during his childhood coming unbidden to his mind. As was the certainty that that Gary was lost forever in this manic madman he had become.

His childhood friend and teenage rival was gone forever.

"I can't allow you to continue. I can't let you destroy an entire race just because you don't like them," Ash replied, his voice strangely gentle.

Gary's features twisted in an ugly sneer, his lips curled in disdain and his eyes showed only hate and malice.

"I don't see how you'll stop me," he scoffed, beginning to pull out a pokeball.

For Ash, time stopped for a single moment as he remembered the dear friend Gary had once been. Their days together spent in simple games. Their friendly rivalry when they both decided to become pokemon trainers. A time before Gary became angry at everything. Before he grew to hate.

And Ash knew, that as of this moment, there would forever be a rift between them that would be insurmountable.

As of this second, the Gary he had grown up with, no longer existed.

Closing his eyes, Ash whispered to Pikachu, "Thundershock."

Pikachu didn't make a noise as it released its attack. An attack which literally took Gary off his feet.

Landing on the ground, Gary fell, unconscious, the pokeball in his hand still unopened.

Ash turned to face the real threat.

"Giovanni!" he screamed, his eyes brimming with tears, the windows behind the man's desk shattering.

The stupid man simply stood and smiled before he reached into his belt and retrieved a pokeball which he threw.

The pokemon that came out was one of the amalgam pokemon that must have been created here.

It was a rather droopy looking creature that resembled one of those old drawings in mythology books. It had the wings and talons of a Pidgeotto. The rest of the body was a rather beautiful Persian. It might have been regal looking if it didn't look like it wanted nothing more than to sink it's claws into Giovanni.

Before Giovanni could even call out an attack, Pikachu acted on it's own idea and shocked the pokeball out of Giovanni's hand.

With a flick of his wrist, Ash caught the ball.

"Do what you want," he ordered the creature.

Amazingly, the creature gave something that looked remarkably like a smile and sent out a Whirlwind attack at Giovanni.

The attack sent all kinds of things flying through the air, including a heavy-looking book that smacked the sleazy leader of Team Rocket right in the temple.

Giovanni glared at Ash as he wiped away a little trickle of blood from the cut that resulted from the collision. Slowly he drew out another pokeball and released it's contents.

The pokemon that emerged looked exactly like a Houndoom. Only with three heads.

This one seemed much more willing to obey since when Giovanni ordered it, it seemed rather eager to comply.

"Tri-Doom, Bite attack," he commanded.

This attack proved to be rather effective since it had three mouths to bite with. One mouth bit one of the Griffon pokemons' wings, one bit it's scruff, and the last bit it's shoulder. As one they threw the pokemon to connect with the wall.

Giovanni smiled a sick looking grin.

That was it.

Ash wasn't going to let him hurt any more pokemon. His own or other peoples'.

"You really think you know anything about merpeople?" Ash asked, lazily recalling the Griffon pokemon and storing the new pokeball on his belt.

"I know everything," Giovanni sneered.

"Really?" Ash replied, doing something he had never done before.

The debris from the Griffon-like pokemon's attack started swirling around the two of them. The glass from the shattered windows rose up and formed a dangerous cyclone around the Rocket's leader.

Ash let his form shift. Just a little.

He felt his hair lighten to that white-green shade that everyone found so strange. He let his skin go to pastel jade that he knew always shocked humans.

Giovanni stared.

This was different. He'd only encountered darker shades of merpeople, and none of them ever exhibited this degree of ability or control.

With a narrowing of Ash's eyes, the glass shards started darting in at Giovanni, slashing at him continuously, giving him one shallow cut after another. None of them were dangerous in themselves, but they were all located in sensitive areas, displaying a degree of control Giovanni hadn't seen in even the most experienced pokemon.

It abruptly occurred to him that he might be in over his head.

"You think you know your _friend_!" he yelled at the boy, hoping to startle him enough to attack him again.

"Well, she's been keeping secrets from you!"

Ash narrowed his eyes. The very walls around them, the sturdy concrete walls, started shaking, little bits of material coming away and joining the glass cyclone that hovered dangerously close to Giovanni's eyes.

"Haven't you ever wondered where pokemon came from? Why they suddenly just _appeared_? Why your people just _appeared!"_

The cyclone slowed just a little.

"It's because of people like _her!_" he yelled, "_They caused all of you to exist! They control evolution itself!"_

The cyclone stilled suddenly, and Giovanni saw his moment. Drawing a knife from the back of his pants, he threw it directly at Ash's head.

And saw it stop mid air.

Ash glared at Giovanni in contempt. With a flick of his mind, the knife that he'd stopped in-flight broke apart at the molecular level, disappearing in a small explosion of energy.

Giovanni barely had time to gape at the act before he was lifted into the air by an unseen force, suddenly finding it hard to breathe from the sheer _power_ being radiated from the person in front of him.

In terror, he looked at Ash who glared back at him with eyes glowing with energy and had lightening streaming from the edges.

"Do you really think I wouldn't see what you're trying to do?" he asked, his voice suddenly booming.

Out of the corner of his eye, Giovanni saw his Tri-Doom cowering away from the suddenly frightening figure the boy had become.

Energy arced across his small frame, but that somehow made him even more frightening. That small body contained more power than any pokemon he'd ever seen. It was a ruse to draw you in, let you think you were safe, and then spring the trap on you.

He would make a fantastic capture.

_**I hear you**._

The voice boomed through the very air around him.

It was only then that Giovanni realized he was completely out of his league.

_**I see the very molecules that hold you together. I'm tempted to take you apart.**_

Giovanni stared in terror as the body of the boy totally dissolved into living lightening that tore into whatever it touched, crumbling the walls around them, vaporizing the furniture.

_**Give me one reason I shouldn't kill you right now.**_

Even with his life in the grasp of this being, Giovanni couldn't think if a single thing.

"Pipika-chu!"

The lightening paused for a moment. A moment that Giovanni was sure would be his last.

Then he was slowly replaced on the ground where he collapsed in a heap.

_**You should remember that you're only alive because of the kindness of a pokemon. One of those creatures you think are worthless as anything but fighting tools.**_

The energy slowly coalesced back into the form of a young boy, perhaps fifteen years old.

"I know about the race you speak of," the boy said, suddenly completely controlled and almost…regal. "What I want to know is how _you_ discovered them."

At that moment, Giovanni would have told him anything.

"T-the b-b-book! There!" he said, pointing at an old looking tome on the ground.

The book floated up and drifted to the boy, who took it out of the air and paged lazily through it for a moment. Then, it simply disappeared. Evaporated into nothingness right in front of his eyes.

"I trust you won't speak of this to anyone. Nor will you ever lay a hand on Misty again."

"N-never!" Giovanni gasped, willing to promise anything to just get _away_ from this person.

As suddenly as it had started, it was over.

That terrifying person he'd faced only a moment before was gone entirely. Replaced by a harmless looking human boy that couldn't possibly be responsible for the damage around them.

Why was he on the ground again?

Oh yes, he'd been knocked down by a pokemon attack.

What had it been?

Did it really matter? He had to get out of this base before it collapsed around him. Just look at the state of his office!

What about the girl?

A wave of all-consuming dread swept through him.

What did he want with the girl again?

It must not've been anything important if he'd forgotten it. Why should he be bothered with that scrawny little girl anyway?

* * *

Giovanni backed away, looking nervous but not terrified like he had been before Ash altered his memory.

Ash followed the man with his eyes, restraining his disgust as best he could at how cowardly this man was. If he had an advantage, he acted like a god, but bring him back down to earth and he was a worm.

Still, he'd survived a Judgment.

But that really didn't amount to much. Ash could never have brought himself to kill anyone. Not even someone like Giovanni.

Suddenly the doors burst open and in came…

Butch and Cassidy.

They looked about ready to start their customary rhyme but their boss broke in.

"Cover my retreat you idiots!" he yelled, grabbing the still unconscious form of Gary and giving one last glare at Ash with renewed arrogance. He yelled over the rushing water as he retreated, "You'll get yours!"

…………..

What a lame comeback.

Butch and Cassidy slowly circled Ash. Presumably trying to figure out how to immobilize the strange intruder.

Ash, however, could not care less about a worthless fight. Sitting on Giovanni's desk and letting his feet hang just above the water that had just started to creep in, he said, "Pikachu, thundershock."

The two Rockets did the predictable electric dance before falling in a heap in the water, dazed but otherwise unharmed.

Ash hopped off the desk. He fetched the dropped pokeball and recalled the Tri-Doom, putting the second new pokeball on his belt. Walking past the two Rockets, he idly commented, "You might want to get out of here before the whole base floods."

The two doubly shocked Rockets watched him duck into a secret room and disappear into the chest high water in the lower situated lab. For a moment, they both blinked blankly, before scrambling to their feet and taking his advice to get out of the now useless base.

A/N: Bet you never thought Ash was THAT powerful huh?

Sincere thanks to Ri2 for both the Tri-Doom and the Griffon pokemon. I decided that I didn't want to script out multiple pokemon battles so I only used two amalgam pokemon which Ri2 graciously provided for me.

I know that the whole Judgment thing was pretty OOC for Ash, but you have to remember that in this story, Ash is first and foremost the ruler of all mer-people. With Giovanni presenting such a threat, Ash had to Judge if it was necessary to eliminate the cause of the problem. Whether he liked it or not.

I know you're going to ask why Ash didn't erase all knowledge of merpeople from Giovanni's mind like he did for himself and Misty. The answer is because Gary would have reminded Giovanni of the mer-people's existence and then Giovanni would try to find the power that made him forget. If Ash erased Gary's memory, Gary would have been reduced to little more than a vegetable or an eternal child since he's had _so_ much contact with mer-people throughout his life that it would require wiping his entire mind. As dangerous and deranged as he is, he was still once a friend of Ash's and Ash couldn't do that to him.

Last but not least; Espers? Well, assuming the pokemon world is Earth, as the case does seem to be, I always wondered what caused the entire planet's population to suddenly change shape and _evolve_ into so many different creatures. Something has to cause it. It makes sense that there's some people born through the centuries that _initiates_ a kind of evolution wave that promotes rapid evolutions in the creatures around them. People like this would be very precious and dangerous. It's because of this that mer-people act as a kind of secret keeper against the fact of these people existing from becoming common knowledge.

Misty needed a big secret and I thought that this was one that nobody would guess.


	18. Problems Escaping

**Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in Pokemon.**

Problems Escaping

Barely noticing the fact that the scientist he'd shocked was no longer present, Ash waded through the now mostly submerged experiment corridor, Pikachu swimming beside him, a mini breathing mask already in place. He'd seen an emergency exit somewhere around here. It was the smartest place for him to leave from, rather than following the escape route Giovanni had taken or waste time looking for another one.

At the thought of Giovanni, he silently cursed himself for not taking the opportunity to demand where Misty was. Still, he would find her if he had to probe every Rocket mind he came across.

The normal power grid was down, no doubt shorted out by the massive influx of water, leaving the backup light to give off low illumination that made the shadows seem alive.

Which was why he jumped so badly when a big looming shape suddenly appeared out of the near darkness and grabbed his shoulder.

He drew back a hand to throw a punch at his attacker when he heard a familiar voice.

"Ash, take it easy!"

It was Jessie's voice.

"What are you two doing here?" Ash inquired, his eyes adjusted enough to the darkness to see both her and James. "I thought you'd be leaving right after you set off the alarm."

James laughed a bit as Jessie replied, "We never got to the alarm. It seems your adventures set it off before we could reach it. We were ordered by some fidgety moron to come down to this lab and fix the water leak."

"Like we even know how to do that," James laughed. "You really did a number on that water main."

Ash gave a little shrug before replying, "Then why didn't you evacuate with the rest of the Rockets?"

"Ah, well, we found Brock here trying to open this last container. Apparently there was a major electrical shock that came through here. A downed electrical cord maybe? Anyway, it fused the control panel. He couldn't get it to open. And he already had lots of filled pokeballs," Jessie explained.

"Right. We told him to get going. That we'd get this last one, but we haven't been having any luck. The control panel is completely melted."

Ash winced a bit, not wanting to say that it was probably the Thundershock he had given that scientist that had shorted out the control panel. Well, he wasn't about to let this girl die because of his mistake.

"Let me try," Ash said, concentrating on the energy held in the water all around him, letting it collect and focus in his hands. "Get down," he ordered before he shot the small beam of energy out from his cupped hands.

The energy hit the cylinder, dancing around the glass briefly before dissipating. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the entire container shattered.

Just exploded, glass flying in every direction, water spilling out in a wave, and the limp form of the experiment-mermaid following the tiny tide into the water-filled corridor.

"Well," Jessie commented, shaking the rather thick and wavy glass shards from her hair, "that was impressive."

"I'll say," James agreed, brushing similar shards from his Rocket suit.

"Let's get going. This place isn't going to last much longer," Ash urged them, wrapping his arm around the unconscious girls' waist and pulling her along beside him to the emergency exit.

There was a brief pause when the girl started gaping like she was being strangled. It took Ash a moment to realize she didn't have any air lungs with which to breath above water anymore. This being thought, he solved the problem by keeping her underwater until he could fix that problem.

The little sign on the emergency door made all three conscious people stop.

It read, "Emergency escape hatch RC-378. Underwater Breathing Devices required. Half mile underwater passageway. Exit: Cinimon Lake. Underwater Breathing Devices located to the left of panel."

Slowly, as one, all three turned to the left of the panel. There were little hooks for the utensils. But there were no Breathing devices there. They had either been grabbed by panicked scientists, or unhooked and carried away by the rising water.

Either way, they were gone, and there was no way Jessie or James could hold their breath that far.

A/N: Whad'ya think? Cool huh? Now what's gonna happen?

Aw, wh'm I kidding, everyone knows things are gonna work out.


	19. A Beautiful Surprise

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

A Beautiful Surprise

"Can you get out the main entrance?" Ash asked.

"Without a breathing mask? No way. It's too far even to even get to another escape hatch," Jessie replied, looking a little pale, even in the low emergency lighting.

"There any other breathing masks around here?"

"Gone. We didn't see any coming in. They'd all been grabbed." It was James who replied this time.

"What about sharing Pikachu's?"

"Impossible. It's designed for pokemon, not humans. We wouldn't get enough air to stay conscious, let alone be able to swim."

Jessie again. They were taking this rather calmly, all facts considered.

Ash closed his eyes with a weary sigh.

God, today was just a bunch of firsts.

"If you guys say one word about this, I'm gonna kill you," Ash said abruptly, wrapping his one free hand around the back of Jessie's neck and pulling her forward enough to lay his other hand on her sternum, right below where her throat joined her torso.

He closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate. His hands glowed for a few seconds and Jessie blinked several times.

Okay…_that…_ felt weird. It felt like something… _shifted_ inside her.

Ash released her and repeated the procedure on James whose expression shifted to an equal mix of confusion and shock.

"Tell anyone and I'll hurt you," Ash commented, his voice neither threatening nor joking, so it was rather difficult to discern if he was kidding or not.

Then, without another word, he turned and opened the hatch, letting the water flood that last bit of area that had been above water.

Jessie opened her mouth to scream but only managed to get a lungful of water… which actually didn't hurt.

Quickly checking around her, she discerned that – _yes _- she was in fact underwater, but that didn't seem to be affecting her ability to breath.

She turned to James to find him in the same state of shock.

Jessie whipped around to demand what was going on when she saw him. It was the first time she had _really_ seen the merman.

When the Red Rockets had attacked them, they had been several dozen feet away, and they only saw the shoulders and head. _Now_ though…

He floated in front of her, the lowly lit emergency lights glancing off his skin and the diamond like spines on his back. The spines supported large wing-like structures which shimmered behind him, looking nearly invisible and entirely magical. His pale green skin shining white even in the darkness.

He looked majestic, with his huge wings backlighting his figure, light playing off of each spine making a sparkling display under the water. His face was utterly breathtaking; his piercing eyes shining with a nearly unearthly splendor.

"What?"

It was a little unusual to hear the twerps' voice come out of this rather beautiful figure.

But it was enough to startle her out of her stupor.

"How are we breathing?"

"I gave you waterlungs," Ash replied with a little shrug.

"Waterlungs?"

"How do you think mer-people breath underwater?" he asked.

"I thought you had gills."

"_Gills_? What do you think we are? Fish?"

"Well, you look like fish! You have scaly tails!"

"_Scaly tails! _Does _this _feel _scaly _to you?" Ash demanded, shifting his tail forward for inspection.

Jessie poked it, expecting the slightly slimy feel all fish had, but instead contacting with warm pliable skin, like a dolphins'.

"Okay, so I was wrong!" Jessie exclaimed, holding her hands up in surrender.

Ash gave a long suffering sigh, rolling his eyes for effect. "Let's get going," he said, flipping his tail and following the shaft to the named lake.

The trip down the passageway was really uneventful. It was a long, rather narrow corridor that allowed for only one person to travel at a time. This feature made it a little difficult for Ash for two reasons. One being that he was supporting the unconscious girl, and two, he had to keep his back fins tucked very firmly against his spine.

The difficulty with the girl was solved by holding her almost inappropriately close as he swam down the tube using only his tail fin for propulsion.

It was because of this position that Ash realized a rather obvious fact. Of course, it wasn't all that surprising considering that Misty's repeated comments of Ash being the densest thing on the planet wasn't far from being true, but was subject to moments of clarity.

The body Ash held closely to his own, the curves of the hips, the shape of the dip in the stomach, the so small waist. Ash knew them all.

His free hand wandered over her midsection, feeling the muscles moving as she breathed, still sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of what was happening.

Ash pulled her closer against him, wrapping both arms firmly around her waist.

Ash _knew_. Even without seeing her face, he _knew_.

He'd been seeing this waist for years, spied glances of these hips when she swam, longed to run his fingertips over _this_ dip in her stomach.

Nearly crying in relief, he buried his face in the nape of Misty's neck, holding her as close to him as physically possible.

It should have been obvious. The glass from her container was _thick _and _warped_. Her container was probably the only one with distorted glass. Probably to obscure her features. Which had worked. Her face had been so blurred by the pane as to be unrecognizable.

But Ash didn't need to see her face.

This was the girl he'd secretly loved and admired for years. He knew every dimple of her smile, every curve of her waist, every muscle of her arms…

He'd all but worshipped her, hiding his feelings behind his duties as Prince. But right now, he couldn't care less about his royal title.

God, Misty…

But, why had they done this to her?

Wait. If she really was one of the evolutionist race, an Esper, than she probably would have been hard to keep captive. What better insurance to keep her confined than to make it that she'd suffocate if she ever left her cage? And lucky for them, they'd already just about perfected the procedure of metamorphosis so soon there'd be more than enough of the others to hide her in plain sight.

Maybe it was because she was an Esper that she'd been the only perfectly formed mermaid of the bunch. And why she was so beautifully colored. Of course, maybe it was just a reflection of how beautiful she normally was.

Exiting the escape tube, Ash took the opportunity to turn her around. There… the face he'd adored for years. That perky nose… the full lips… those expressive eyes…

It was that very moment that Ash decided that this girl would be his bride.

His advisors could all go to hell if they didn't like it.

He'd never let her go again.

A/N: What do you guys think! Only a chapter or two left of this story.

You've all been so nice in your reviews!

I've always planned on making Misty into a mermaid. Truth be told, that was the entire point to this story. And I know you were all surprised when "That awesomely gorgeous mermaid" wasn't Misty. I couldn't tell you that no, it _was_ Misty and they just didn't know it yet.

P.S. I hope Ash's transformation explains why he's so resilient to electrical shocks.


	20. Author's Note and Explanations

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything in Pokemon.**

A/N: Okay, a lot of you guys are taking it wrong.

First, Ash is _not_ obsessed, and if it seems that way then I apologize. See, the thing is, Ash has been traveling with Misty for _years_ by now. And when you're in love with someone, you see all those little idiosyncrasies that most people don't notice. Just ask anyone to describe in depth the person they're in love with. I guarantee you it'll be a mendering description of things you would have never seen on your own. That's just how love is. When you love someone, and I mean really _REALLY_ love someone, you notice a lot more things about them than the average person who doesn't feel anything special for them.

Second, let's face it. Misty's hot pants and short shirt leave little to the imagination on her musculature. And, really, any healthy young man who's in love with a girl like that is _going_ to take the advantage to ogle her abs, legs, and anything else visible. And with Ash, who's kept vise-like control on his emotions for Misty _is going _to know and recognize a lot of things about her.

Third, I described mermaid Misty's hair as amber because all merpeople's hair change when they're in mer-form.

Hope that helped you guys understand the last chapter better.


	21. Finding A Prince

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

Finding A Prince

Only a few hours had passed since the destruction of the Rocket base. Jesse and James had had enough tact to leave Ash alone with the girl they still didn't recognize as Misty.

Ash was content to sit on the lakebed and hold her in his arms until she woke up, which was taking longer than he'd expected, not that he minded. He could hold her forever and he wouldn't get tired of it.

Still, when her eyelids fluttered, his breath had caught in his throat.

Slowly, her eyelids lifted, revealing those brilliant green eyes that he so loved.

She stretched her arms out with a little moan and a yawn.

"Morning Ash," she yawned. "Why're you holding me?"

Ash smiled softly, murmuring, "No reason."

Misty rubbing her eyes clear of the last bit of sleep, suddenly froze.

She jumped out of Ash's arms in a surprisingly graceful move for being new to fins, yelling, "Alright, where are those bastards!"

She whirled her head from one direction to the other looking for, as she put it, those bastards, as if they were right there and she were going to punch every single one of them.

Ash snickered slightly, raising himself off the lakebed, situating himself behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist soothingly.

"Don't worry, I dealt with them."

"Dealt with… what's going on? And why… oh…my…god…"

Snickering a little louder, Ash asked innocently, "What?"

"We're underwater," she said, as if that statement alone meant the whole world.

"Yes. We are."

"I'm breathing underwater."

"Yes. You are."

"I have a mermaid tail."

"Yes. You do."

"What's going on? And it you say 'yes' again I'm going to punch you in the nose."

Ash laughed gently, holding her a little closer. "Well Team Rocket took you prisoner. I believe they thought that you're an Esper."

Ash felt Misty freeze a little in his arms.

"Ah, well. It doesn't matter. Anyway, they turned you into a mermaid to keep you captive and I broke you out."

Misty breath caught a little, "You rescued me?"

"Yes. I rescued you," he replied, his voice soft and the smile audible.

The thought was so strange. Ash knew she was an Esper, and he'd rescued her. They were underwater and she was a mermaid. And Ash was holding onto her like she was his entire life.

Which felt really nice, truth be told. It made her want to melt back against him and never move again.

Misty was tempted to do just that, until she realized that she was still effectively trapped by the Rockets' procedure. Somehow she doubted the Rocket scientists had been gracious enough to provide her with the strange shape-shifting ability that natural mer-people seemed to enjoy.

"How are we going to leave this lake?" she asked, her voice not quite trembling, but closer to it than Ash had ever heard before. "I don't want to be stuck in some god-forsaken lake for the rest of my life!"

"That's not really a problem," Ash commented, releasing Misty to float beside him in the water.

Quickly focusing his mind on the task at hand, he closed his eyes and called up on his energy. The same energy that he shared with every other merperson that gave them the ability to change shape.

It was a little harder than normal. After all, Misty had originally been a human, and giving the ability of shape-changing was really quite a bit more difficult than giving humans waterlungs.

To Misty it looked like Ash had just fallen asleep. He'd stopped moving entirely, drifting slightly in the underwater currents of the lake. She was just about to give his head a little smack when he suddenly began to glow.

Or rather, his forehead began to glow. Rather brightly in fact. It quickly went from a small light to being so bright it felt like looking into the sun.

Squinting against the light, Misty was able to see a small crystal looking shard that seemed embedded in Ash's forehead that she couldn't remember ever seeing before. He began making a few motions, gathering the power into his hands.

Then, extending his arms towards her, she watched as the energy drifted to her, quickly enveloping her body in a warmth she was sure she'd never felt before, but that seemed strangely familiar. Like being held tight in your mother's arms after a nightmare.

The light didn't exactly fade. It was more like the light sank into her skin, changing some little but crucial part of her genetic makeup.

The remaining light around Ash tapered away, leaving Misty wondering if it had been reabsorbed or just allowed to dissipate into the water around them.

A few moments later, Ash opened his eyes and proclaimed, "All done. You should be able to shift back to human now."

"How… how did you do that?" Misty whispered, looking at Ash with a new respect in her eyes along with a touch of wonder.

"Some merpeople have special abilities," Ash replied with a shrug, not quite wanting her to know he was the prince yet and possibly freak.

"Special abilities? Like that Hydro Pump you threw when the Red Rockets came to kidnap me?" Misty inquired, watching Ash closely.

"Exactly!" Ash exclaimed, happy that she was moving away from his recent performance.

"A Hydro Pump is completely different from what you just did," she stated, circling Ash slowly, bringing her full attention back to Ash's capability to give her the ability to shape-shift, remembering all those odd little things that happened during the merpeople meetings. Especially how all the merpeople had treated Ash with a respect that at the time made her wonder, but now indicated something else. "You're special among merpeople, aren't you?"

Not really wanting to answer, but unable to lie to her, Ash replied, "Kinda."

"Does the King know about your abilities?"

Ash gave a slow sigh. It seemed she was determined to find out.

"There is no King presently. He was murdered. The Prince is currently managing the ruling affairs in his spare time."

And just like that, a light popped on in Misty's head. All those little out-of-place clues suddenly fit together to give her the full view of the situation.

"_You're_ the Prince; aren't you?" she whispered slowly, her eyes wide as she stared at Ash.

A/N: How will Misty react to Ash being royalty? Will she take it as well as him being a merman? Will there be a happily ever after for these two?

Where the hell is Brock?

Find out in the Last Update of The Ashy Merman!


	22. Her Prince

**Disclaimer: I don't own any character of Pokemon.**

Her Prince

It all made sense.

His lighter coloration. His _diamond_-like wing spines, a coloring no other merman shared. The way he was treated at merpeople meetings. His abilities. Even the way he'd occasionally sneak off to contact someone on the vid-phone when he thought no one would notice his absence.

It all fit together.

"_Please_ don't get all weird on me!" the boy exclaimed, completely unlike his newly revealed social standing, but very much like the Ash she had known for years. "You don't know what it's like to be bowed to everywhere you go!"

For a seeming eternity, Misty simply stared at him in a very uncomforting way.

Then, before Ash could even blink, she did a weird twirl and brought the full force of her tailfin down directly on Ash's head.

"Oowwchh!"

"Well you deserved it! What even made you think I'd get all bow-ey to you?" Misty exclaimed, crossing her arms in front of her chest, which she suddenly noticed was only covered by a rather flimsy medical cloth that ended just barely below her breasts. With a little 'eep', she tried to cover herself as best as possible, even though the cloth really did conceal the most important bits of her endowments.

Ash would have laughed, but he really didn't see the point of asking for another tail-slap.

Rubbing the bump on his head, the product of the last tail blow, he smiled. Not at Misty's antics to cover herself, even though her normal shirt displayed about the same amount of skin as the medical cloth, but because Misty really didn't care. She would never have hit him if she were in awe of his Princehood. Her reaction showed she could have cared less, even less than when she had discovered he was a merman.

Maybe he could get a happy ending after all…

By the time Ash and Misty surfaced, Brock was waiting for them patiently on the shore, just in front of the treeline with all three of their backpacks sitting beside him.

Brock blinked. Twice.

"So who is she?" Brock called to Ash, indicating the mermaid they had both seen in the Team Rocket lab. The only one he hadn't been able to get out.

His reward was a medium sized rock that impacted with his face with surprising force.

"You numbskull! Are you blind?" Misty yelled at him from across the water even as she and Ash swam closer to shore.

Cutting off what was sure to be a _really_ awkward - and possibly painful - conversation, Ash called, "You have Misty's bag Brock?"

Rubbing the large red mark on his face, Brock replied, "Right here!" as he held up said bag.

"Great! Leave both my and Misty's bags and go in the woods!" Ash yelled. Turning to Misty, he said, "We'll wait for you in the woods."

Then, Ash beached himself on the sand bank, shifted to human and began to follow Brock.

Misty panicked.

"Wait!"

Ash spun around quickly, hand going to his pokebelt, glancing around quickly for the threat that had frightened Misty. Finding none, he responded, "What?"

Misty blushed bright red.

"Could you… could you stay? I don't want to be alone…"

Ash smiled softly.

"Sure," he said, turning around to give Misty her privacy without leaving her alone.

Misty followed Ash's example and beached herself on the sandy shore.

"How do I turn human?" she asked.

"Picture yourself as a human," Ash replied, "Remember how it felt to have two legs that functioned separately. Focus on how your toes moved rather than how your fin feels. Concentrate on yourself as you were before Team Rocket appeared on the trail."

It seemed a little silly to pretend yourself human, but Misty concentrated anyway, remembering how her feet had felt a little cramped in her shoes. Her legs had felt fresh, not at all tired like they usually did after a long walk, but the scenery was just so beautiful that she couldn't help but feel rejuvenated.

Slowly she opened her eyes and watched as her tail glowed and shrank down into her human legs.

Even with her legs back, there were some indicators that she would never be exactly as she had been before she'd been captured.

Down each leg there were the red stripes, wrapping around the outside of her legs in decreasing size, finally ending at her ankles. They looked like interesting tattoos more than anything else.

Flexing her toes, Misty saw little webbing between each digit.

Same with her fingers, although it was even less than Ash's.

She quickly pulled out some clothes from her backpack and changed into them. She'd only had one pair of shoes though so she put on a pair of sandals instead.

"How do I look?" she asked.

Ash turned around and looked at her closely.

She was wearing her normal yellow shirt and jean shorts, but her suspenders were missing. Maybe she only had the one set? Her jean shorts were also a little different from usual. They seemed to be an older pair, as the outside seams were ripped halfway up the material, showcasing bright red stripes that pointed inward and traveled down the outside of each leg, ending at her ankles. Her usual shoes were missing and she was instead wearing a very comfortable looking pair of leather sandals.

The stripes served to make her legs look even longer.

Ash swallowed hard before replying, "N-nice. You look nice."

"Can I come out yet?" Brock's voice drifted to them, plaintive and a little bored.

"No one's keeping you there," Misty replied, crossing her arms in front of her, still a little annoyed that he hadn't recognized her.

Brock reappeared from the line of trees.

"You don't seem that surprised with Misty's… ah, new condition," Ash noted carefully.

"There is only so many shocks one person can take in two days before they get a little… numb," Brock replied.

Ash shrugged, "I suppose it's fair. You've learned that there's a whole other race of humans you've never heard about sharing the world with you, then Misty was kidnapped, Jessie and James became good guys, Team Rockets are really mad experimenting scientist bastards, and Misty was just turned into a mermaid… y'know, yeah, I can see how you'd get a little numb to additional shocks."

Misty snickered lightly, muttering, "Put that way, I suppose I can forgive him. He does look like the smurfs could walk by and he wouldn't blink." Then, she froze for a second before exclaiming, "Jessie and James are _good_?" like that part had just caught up with her.

"Yeah, I know. I couldn't believe it either, but they're the ones that got us into the base. We couldn't have rescued you if they hadn't helped," Ash explained. "Hey, Brock, what happened to all those other experiments?"

Brock held up his own bag, showing a little over a dozen pokeballs.

"I captured the ones that were alive. I figure we should take them to a PokeCenter to get them checked out."

"And where are Jessie and James? Are they still around here?"

"Right here twerp!" Jessie's voice called out suddenly.

Ash looked up in time to see the ex-Rockets walking out from a different section of trees.

"I - ah," Ash began, digging the toe of one of his shoes into the sand, "Thanks for helping."

"Well, we figure it makes up for all the trouble we've caused you," James replied, scratching the back of his head.

"Well, let's get going then," Ash announced, "We should get these guys to a PokeCenter as soon as we can!"

"Nearest one's a mile back that way," Brock said, pointing behind them to the forest.

"Then we're going that way!" Ash exclaimed happily, letting Jessie, James and Brock lead the way for once, hanging back and walking next to Misty.

He slipped his hand into Misty's, squeezing it comfortingly.

Misty looked at him in surprise.

Ash usually lead them wherever they were going. Probably a trait from him being a Prince. He was a natural leader, even if he lead did them into some really strange situations.

But then again, he also got them out of the _bad_ situations that seemed to always find them.

Ash rarely hung back and let others lead. He also didn't often show so much affection to her.

Looking up, Misty could only see a gentle smile gracing his lips with a tenderness that she would never have guessed of him.

Slowly, he brought their clasped hands up and brushed his lips over her fingers.

All thought froze in Misty's head.

Softly, she felt a gentle hand wrap around her neck.

Ash leaned towards her and skimmed his surprisingly soft lips over her own before claiming them more firmly into a consuming kiss that left her weak at the knees.

She hadn't realized her eyes had drifted closed until the kiss ended and she opened them.

She'd never noticed how deep Ash's eyes were. Blacker than night, and with more stars than the sky, they drew her in more firmly than anything ever had, leaving her with only one thing…

Ash loved her more than anyone had ever loved her, more than she had ever guessed possible. He kept so much inside himself, showing such a small portion of his real personality to the outside world. But now, with her, he could show her how much he felt for her, how much he really cared.

Before her now, there was no sign of the carefree boy she had thought she'd known.

This was the Prince of the merpeople, a group of people she was now a part of.

And he was completely and utterly in love with her.

Which, she realized with a shock, was wholly reciprocated.

She smiled shyly at this newly revealed Ash, lightly brushing his hair out of his eyes with her fingertips, letting her palm rest ever so briefly on his cheek.

He pulled her close and gave her another kiss that made her melt all the way to her toes, letting their breaths mingle as he rested his forehead against her own.

"One day," he whispered, "I'll make you my Queen."

Misty's breath caught in her throat. Completely unable to think of a clever comeback, she replied, "Really?"

He smiled tenderly, softly tracing her eyebrow with a gentle thumb.

"Really," he answered.

"Okay then," she responded, letting her eyes flutter closed and being consumed in another soul warming kiss that he was so very good at.

Tomorrow would bring new problems.

Team Rocket would probably want their experiments back. They'd probably also keep causing trouble with merpeople. It'd be awhile before the merpeople world could settle back down into peace.

But right now, life was perfect.

And Misty knew that Ash would conquer all the problems in the world.

He was, after all, her Prince.

A/N: Hope you all liked the ending!

I'm thinking about doing a sequel about life in a few years time. It would include Ash and Misty, Jessie and James, maybe Brock and definitely Team Rocket.

But as you guys know, I'm a slow writer, so I'm not sure.

Well, if you guys want a sequel, I may make a sequel. But if I do, it'll probably be a more adultsequel. I know it's different from the relatively youthful storyline of this story, but with Ash and Misty's relationship as it is, it's the only logical thing.

Well, I hope you readers enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed thinking it up and writing it. It was an honor to know that my story was liked and read by so many people.

See ya!


	23. My Aplogies

My apologies.

Someone contacted me about this story.

I'm afraid I had a major computer failure and lost your address. I can't remember your name and can only hope you'll notice this.

This person contacted me about possibly doing a webcomic on this story.

I am very sorry for the troubles.

Please contact me again.

Thank you.


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